


Othertales

by AmyMay2



Series: Brothertale [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gender-Neutral Chara, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-11 01:03:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 53,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5607892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyMay2/pseuds/AmyMay2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stories set before, during, and after the Brothertale AU. They vary greatly in tone, length, and subject (but lean toward angsty with happy/bittersweet endings, much like Brothertale).<br/>Taking requests for stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The True Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place before the events of the game and Brothertale.

Sans was in his office, looking over the mess had had made. It was a fitting state for notes on chaos theory. He closed his eyes and started to focus on his thoughts. If he could crack it, he may be able to find a way to prove the existence of alternate timelines. Once he did that it would only be a matter of time, heh, before he could observe them directly, or even travel between them.  
“SANS!” whined the piercing voice of Papyrus. Sans spun around to face his little brother, trying to keep the annoyance off his face. He loved the kid, but he was in the middle of something.  
“yeah, bro?” he said with forced levity.  
“YOU’VE BEEN IN HERE FOR DAYS NOW! YOUR ROOM IS A MESS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Papyrus yelled, stamping his foot. Sans could have sworn he had only been in the room for a few hours at most, but he had a habit of losing track of time. The irony of that wasn’t lost on him.  
“it’s just science junk. nothing you’d be interested in.”  
“I KNOW THAT! SANS, COME AND PLAY WITH ME! EVERYONE ELSE AROUND HERE IS SO LAZY!”  
Sans struggled to keep his breathing steady. He had told Alphys not to let his brother near the people who had fallen down. They would have to have a talk later. “alright. just let me finish up here.”  
“THAT’S WHAT YOU SAID LAST TIME,” Papyrus muttered, crossing his arms. “WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO WAIT?”  
“i promise, this time we’ll do whatever you want.”  
“CAN WE GO TO SNOWDIN AND BUILD SNOWMEN?”  
“snowdin? that a little far to...” Papyrus glared at him, and Sans sighed in defeat. “sure. snowmen.”  
“YOU PROMISE?”  
“cross my heart. i’ll be out in a bit.”

Sans stretched and checked the time on his phone. Cleaning up his notes had only felt like it had taken a few minutes, but apparently he had been there for at least an hour. Papyrus would be mad. Sans trudged out into the dimly lit hallways, wondering where Papyrus could have gone. The lab under Alphys’ place wasn’t the most well-designed place in the underground, and no matter how much he told Papyrus to stay close by he always decided to go off exploring. Especially when he was bored. Sans looked down the darker, more abandoned hallways. That would be the most likely place for a junior hero like his brother to be. Turning into one of the stranger rooms, a hallway that ended in a curtained-off bathtub, Sans saw something small and white collapsed on the floor. It took him a second to realize that it was his brother.  
“papyrus! what happened?” Sans shouted, running over to Papyrus and sliding the last few feet on his knees. Papyrus was shivering violently and didn’t seem to hear Sans calling to him. Was this what it looked like when someone ‘fell down’? “no... he’s just a kid... he can’t... not already!” He grabbed Papyrus’ shoulder, about to try to shake his brother awake, but as soon as he made contact a wave of nausea hit him and his head exploded with pain. Reflexively, he pulled back. “let’s... let’s just get you to alphys.” Sans gently picked up Papyrus, fighting through the sudden pain that came from touching him. “i can’t... i can only work in theories, but she’ll know what to do.” Papyrus was starting to look blurry around the edges, but he wasn’t turning into dust. It was more like he was going out of focus. There was a buzzing in Sans’ head that was slowly building as he ran through the lab, turning into a high-pitched screech. “alphys!” he yelled as he burst through the door to her office. She turned said something, looking terrified, but he couldn’t hear her over the screaming. He put Papyrus down in a chair by the door, and almost as soon as he let go of him everything went back to normal. He swayed, exhausted from the effort of carrying Papyrus. Alphys put a hand on his back to steady him.  
“S-Sans... What’s w-wrong with P-Papyrus?” she asked.  
“i thought he had just ‘fallen down’,” he said desperately. If Alphys didn’t know what it was, then neither of them knew what to do.  
“Maybe...?” Alphys said, wringing her hands. “Skeleton physiology i-is a l-little... different t-to most other monsters. It’s even l-less physical, so I h-haven’t... I-I mean, I c-can’t... I d-don’t even know w-what this is...” Alphys wasn’t telling Sans anything he didn’t already know, and he could feel his eyes flare up in frustration. He had to focus. Closing his eyes and pacing, Sans watched equations and theories floating around in his skull. Usually, visualizing his thoughts as ‘written down’ in his mind helped to sort through them, but he couldn’t focus. Thoughts would run over each other, trail off into the distance, or end abruptly. Some of them were written in a strange, alien language.  
Wait, that was too strange. Even at his worst, his thoughts had always been ‘readable’. He focused on one of them, but it faded as he walked. He snarled, increasing the speed of his pacing, and was surprised to see the thought come back. He paused. Taking two steps back, he watched it fade. Two steps forward brought it back. He moved forward, watching it grow in intensity until he felt something in front of him. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was standing in front of Papyrus again. With a deep breath, he made a decision. He closed his eyes, focusing on that alien thought, and took Papyrus’ hand. All at once, the screaming and pain started again, but Sans pushed through it, focusing on that thought. It hadn’t changed, but somehow he could read it. It was a single word.  
“alphys...” he gasped, letting go of Papyrus’ hand. “do you know anything about DETERMINATION?”  
“I-It’s... what I’m using o-on the other p-patients. T-the ones that have f-fallen down,” she said, looking at him fearfully. “B-but we d-don’t know... they st-still haven’t woken up! It’s really d-dangerous.”  
“please,” Sans begged, walking over to her. She flinched when he put his hands on her shoulders. “i’m asking you as a friend.”  
She paused. They were wasting too much time, and Sans accidentally tightened his grip on her shoulders, making her squeak slightly and nod. “I-I’ll have to decrease the d-dosage to m-make up for age a-and difference i-in physicality.” She turned, slipping out of Sans’ grip, and rummaged around in her desk drawers, bringing out a small medicine bottle of something red and viscous. “F-for now, I wouldn’t r-recommend more than... one-milliliter p-per day. A-and he’ll have to d-drink it, because we c-can’t inject it anywhere.” Sans carefully took the bottle and measured out one milliliter into the cap. “D-don’t get any on y-yourself,” Alphys warned.  
“don’t worry about me.” Sans said, turning toward Papyrus. “alright pap. time to take your medicine.” He gently opened Papyrus’ mouth, almost spilling the determination as the pain returned. He hesitated for a second before making Papyrus drink it. Almost immediately, Papyrus whimpered and burst into a fit of coughing. But he looked solid again, and the pain from coming into contact with him lessened. As soon as Papyrus calmed down, Sans picked him up and looked him over. The shivering had died down. If Sans didn’t know any better, he would have guessed that Papyrus was simply sleeping. “thanks, alphys,” he said with a relieved sigh. He slipped the bottle of determination into his coat pocket. “there’s a little town by the ruins called snowdin. i think there’s a house for sale there. it may do pap some good to get out of here for a while.”  
“B-but your research-!”  
“maybe once pap’s better i’ll have it brought down,” he said, waving off Alphys’ complaint. “besides, i’m sure you’ll be able to pick up the slack. asgore doesn’t really need two royal scientists.”  
Alphys was nervously twisting her hands together, but still nodded.

Two days after leaving the lab, they were already moved into Snowdin. Sans had carried Papyrus the whole way, and Alphys had someone bring their furniture to their new house. The furthest room on the second floor was filled with boxes that Sans hadn’t bothered to unpack, but he didn’t need the room anyway. He always slept against the wall in Papyrus’ room.  
Three days after leaving the lab, Sans was sitting by Papyrus’ bed, holding his hand through another coughing fit. After the latest dose, the screaming that came with touching Papyrus had died down to a high-pitched buzzing. Papyrus was getting better. Maybe he only needed to take the determination thrice? Sans hoped so. He didn’t know what came after thrice.  
Four days after leaving the lab, and Sans had stopped letting go of his brother’s hand. He was used to the noise and the pain anyway, and the contact seemed to help.  
Five days after leaving the lab, and nothing changed.  
Six days after leaving the lab, and Sans considered increasing the dosage. But he didn’t want to risk it.  
Seven days after leaving the lab, Sans began to give up. But he kept going anyway. Wasn’t seven meant to be a lucky number?  
Eight days after leaving the lab, and Sans stopped getting up. He just gave Pap his medicine and waited.  
Nine days after leaving the lab, and the buzz was all he could hear, even during the coughing.  
Ten days after leaving the lab, and the buzzing separated into voices.  
Eleven days after leaving the lab, and Sans wasn’t able to count very well from there.

Sans didn’t know how long it was before Papyrus stirred. Sans felt his hand twitch a second before his eyes opened. “pap?” he yelled, knocking the chair over as he got up. But Papyrus didn’t look at him. He just closed his eyes again. Still, it was progress. Sans noticed that his hand had slipped out from his brothers when he got up, and was amazed at how much his mind cleared. The noise must have been affecting him more than he thought. He had already given Papyrus his medicine, so he would be able to take a few minutes for himself as long as he didn’t go too far.  
He stretched and took a few steps away from Papyrus’ bed. The aching in his bones faded the further away he got, allowing him to focus better. He checked his phone for the date and cursed. He had been sitting around for a while. Alphys had been messaging him. A lot. With a sigh, Sans leaned against the wall and started reading, skipping anything with ‘Mettaton’ in the subject line.

_Subject: King Dreemurr  
King Dreemurr came to check our progress today (not that I’ve made any). He asked where you were. Should I tell him what happened?_

_Subject: Checking In  
The monsters still haven’t turned to dust. How’s it going on your end?_

_Subject: Progress!  
Someone opened their eyes! I’d like to be happy about that, but I’m worried about you. Why aren’t you replying?_

_Subject: Exciting News!  
Everyone’s walking around like nothing happened! It’s not what I was trying to do, but at least it’s a happy ending. I’m sending them back, so you should see some of the dogs' parents arriving in Snowdin soon. Has Papyrus gotten up yet? Are you two okay?_

Sans paused before reading the last one, because it didn’t have a subject. Whenever Sans did that it annoyed Alphys enough for her to overcome her nerves and complain about it. He had a bad feeling, but he had to know what it said.

_Subject:  
DO NOT GIVE PAPYRUS ANY MORE DETERMINATION_

The message had been sent three days ago. Sans dropped the phone and ran over to Papyrus, checking him for any changes, good or bad. He seemed the same, like he was sleeping. Sans tore back the covers and stared, horrified. Papyrus’ ribs had fallen off. Sans backed away. He needed to calm down. If he just got far enough away he could clear his head. This confusion, this panic, it was just because of the noise. He could solve this if he just moved away. But he couldn’t leave his brother, could he? Papyrus would be in so much pain from losing his ribs, so Sans couldn’t just leave him. Trembling, he gave his brother a hug, closing his eyes tight and wishing. It was all he could think to do. Then the alien writing returned.

 

 

S͂ͦ̐ͣ̽̄̄͐̉̀͝͡a̸ͫ̿̾ͥͬ̑ͧ͆̇̅͂̌̃͊͘n̡̧̨͛͋̍̑͋̿̽̇͋̽̓̊̐̈͛͒͟͠ṡ̆̈ͮ͂ͨ̎͒̏̓̿̽͌͐̉̓ͤ̕͡͞ ̸̷̌́̐̐͑̾̌͂ͦ̿͐ͫͭc̷̈́̾̀̈́͛ͭͥ̐̽̄ͩ͆̊ͥ̈́̓̽̓ͣ͟ǫ͂̉͑͂̀͡ư̴̓͒͐̏ͫ͌ͮ̍͠l͌̓̿̐ͤͬ̍̐́ͤͨ̃̉̈̓̚͏̡͏dͦͭ̆̈́̿̋ͥ͜͟͢͝͡n̷̨̆ͣͯͫͦ̐͌ͫͬ͑ͬ̔ͭͭ̋͊̈́̚͘͟’̷̢̛̛̾̋͗ͧ̔̄̂ͫͮ̌ͤ͑͒́t̉ͬ͐ͮ͗̈͑̎ͫ̎ͮ͗̉̔ͩͯͩ͒͂͟ ͗ͦ͒̀ͤ̍͛ͬͧͣͧ̂ͧͭͩ̓͆͗ś̵̑̆̊͢a͂͆ͨ̈́͊ͨ̎̇ͮ̓̉͆͆̀͜vͥ̐̎͗̃̅̈̀̚͏̶̧́͟ȇ̶̎̐ͨ͘͟ ̧̡͒ͦͩ̅̐̉́͂̍̆̀͑ḩ̛͛̈̃̉̂ͣ̾ͮͯ͢i̍̈̍̈̔ͩ̈́ͦ̈̍͐̓ͬ̽s̢̨̾́̍͌͒͗ͮ̒ ̴̔͌ͪ̎ͯ͠͏b̓͂ͭ͗̈́̾̒̏ͩ̄ͤ͑͒̎͒̊ͤ͊̚͏͏͘r̸̷̶̨͛͑̈́ͤ͗ͪͨ̎ͦͣ͐͗̌̈́́o̊ͦ̎ͭ̃̈́͋ͦ̔̍̎̈́̉̀̀̕͡t̷̐ͪ̔̿͗̆ͤ̽͂ͨͬ͘h̷̷ͨ͒̓̎̿̈́̿ͩ͆ͭ̃ͥ̾͘̕e̷͒͒ͧͯ͊̏̿͗͋͗̇͑͛ͦͭ̆̈́ͭͮ͟͏r̢̧̾̅ͪ̃ͬ͐ͬ̍͠ ͗̏̾̉̄ͬ̎̈ͨ̓̽͒ͫͩ͜͝ľ̆̑̉ͩͬ̆ͮ̅̒̓͋̍ͣ̅҉͜͞͞͝i̷̡̐͌ͯ̓̿ͭͨ́̏ͩķ̵̍ͯ̎̈́ͫͭ͑́͐ͤ̾́̋̀̀̚ȅ̢̨͐̅̒ͯ͊̂͂̽͑ͪ͘͞ ̢̛ͨ̽́ͤ̿͒ͭ̽̓͒̐̉̑̆t̷̶̨̑̾͗̂ͧͤ̈̓̈ͨ̍́͢h̴̴̍̔̏̅̓ͫͭ̿ͪi͗ͪ̏̓̎ͨ͒ͧ̃ͪ̈̆ͥ̚͞ş̀̌ͯ̒ͯͥͦ̈́͛͑ͤ͆̌ͧ͊̐̚̕.̈́

He knew that, but he didn’t know what else he could do.

 

S͌̓̊͞a̛͋̏ͣ̽̍ͪ̅̏͡n̿̏ͯͬͭ͡şͥ̓ͮ̑̇͆ͭͪ̑͟͝ ̏́ͧ́͢͟h̢ͯ̂͟a̍ͮ̎d̡̛͑͛ͩ̈́ͩͩͣͬ̆ ̸̋̋͛ͭ̊͗ͮͦa̷͌ͤ͊ͯͨ̇͟ ̷̶̇̅ͭ͋̑ͧͩ͢t̨̅́̉ͥ́͜hͣ͟ơ̿͑̀u̸̿̉̑͗͛ͦ́g̛̉͝h̷̢̄ͬ́̃͌ͭ̑ͣͧt͛͛̊͗̋̈ͤ̊̕͜.ͬͩ̉ͤ͌

The thoughts weren’t his own.

S͑̀ͤ̐ͯ̇̊́a͋͑̎̾̌͂̚n̑s̽͑͂͌̇ͩ̇́ ͢c͂ͥ͠o͐̊͒u̸̔̀̉̂̋l̸̏d̢̏̏̄̾ ̚u͗̋͌ṡ͆ͥͯe͘ ̔͋͊͑͆m̵͋̎͂̎o̕r͢e̓̽͗͛ ̡Ḋ́ͦĖ̽Tͧ́̚E̚͝R̓̓͐͊̓̎͝M̢͒̍̃͊̆̚I͂ͪ̀͋́̚N͋A̢͊ͧ̃̒͛TͮͬͮȈ͗͌̑ͭỎNͬ̅̽̐̔̓.̏̆

... How would that even help?

Sͨ̿͂ͪã̋̉ͬͣ̓ͧn̋̓̆s̑͌ͤ’̔̃̈̊ͫ ͪͫͭͨ̚bͦ̌r͛ͩ̔̒ỏͣͭ̇tͤͦh̓ͬëͫr̉̔̚ ̽̃̚ċ̽̅̋̆oͨŭ̇l̎̍̈d̂̈̏ͯ̀n͛̅́͂ͥ’ͨ͋͌́̐̿t͑ ͂ͤ̃̍̉s̊ͫ̄̍ṫ̐ãͣͭͦẙͮ̒̒ ̽̅ͩ̋̔͆l̓ͧ̄ͧ̂̀ḯͤͫkͯ͛ͣ͋e͊ͧ̀͌ ̿͋͂ͨ͆̐ͮt̓̽h͌̊̀͌̀̋̄a̅ͬ̆͑t̾ͪ͛̅ͫ̋ ̇̇ͩͩ̈ͥ̔f̐ͪór̈͒̊̈́ͭ̃ev̎̇ͩͯͨ̽e͋̋͌r̈̍.̇͒ ̌̔̾̑͋̉T̔ͨhe̾ ͌̔͊ͯ̄͛ͫb̈å̾̏ĺ̓̏͗̃͆a͌̓̌ͩ̃̏n̔c͆eͫͣ ̿ͦ͊͌h̓ͣ̀̀̅ͬ̇a̋d̏̈̀͆ ̌̐ͯ͆̚tͩͦo̐̅ ͋̇̊ͭ̌͗tiͧ̎p ̓ỏ̌̎̌nͣ͐̄̚eͩ̔̄̇͐͗̆ ̂͒ẘaͩ̀͐̍yͯ̃͒ͧ͂ o̊ͧ̈͆͒r̿̇͐̌̒ ̓͐tͩͤh͊ĕͮ̅ͧͥ ͤ͛ͬ͌̐͐̇o͗ͪt̄hͥ͂̈ͤ̑̚e̍ͦͦ͗̉r̈̍.

Now he knew he couldn’t trust the thoughts. He pushed himself away from his brother, forcing himself to run out the door and slam it behind him. His head cleared up, and he dug around in his pocket for the bottle of determination. He would have to make some sort of anti-determination serum, and he didn’t have time to make the trip to Hotland to ask Alphys for her research. Instead, he ran down to the basement and uncovered his machine. It was made to analyze the temporal data related to an object or person. So far it had only managed to analyze that past and present of an object, but that would be enough. He just needed to know more about the determination as it was at that moment. He shoved it unceremoniously into the machine and started it up. It let out a low whine and started to print out a series of notes on the determination. Sans gathered them up and brought them to the bench. As an afterthought, he set the machine to focus on Papyrus while Sans worked. It would take longer to get the information, since he wasn’t in the room.  
Sans was working too slowly, afraid to look at his thoughts like he normally did in case that strange writing hadn’t left. He hadn’t gotten anywhere by the time the machine finished its analysis of Papyrus. With a frustrated snarl, Sans turned to that to see if he could find what was wrong.  
He had to check the data twice to be sure he had it right. Papyrus wasn’t completely in this timeline. Somehow, his consciousness was flickering between multiple timelines. Signs pointed to outside interference triggering it, but everything after that seemed to be an entirely natural ability of Papyrus’. Sans breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that all the skipping around Papyrus was doing had siphoned off the excess determination. It actually seemed to leave him slightly drained of it. The only other worry was that trigger. It was still there, hovering around Papyrus like a poisonous cloud. Sans tried to focus the machine on the trigger. The usual low whine of the machine grew as it tried to analyze it. It with a sudden crack it fell apart, pieces flying off everywhere.  
“no no no...” Sans hissed, side-stepping the pieces that shot toward him. Once it had finished sparking, he ran over to see if the machine was still usable. Most of the important parts had fried, and the bottle of determination had shattered from the immense pressure. It was leaking from the machine and... onto the floor where Sans was standing.  
Numbness and then burning pain spread up his leg. He yelped and jumped back, but as soon as his leg hit the floor it fell off at the knee. He screamed and clutched the stub, even after realizing that it somehow didn’t hurt. Was this what happened back in the Lab? Were people just falling apart?  
The world was lit up brighter than he had ever seen, not just because of the fear making his magic flare up. Everything seemed sharper, as if someone had turned up the contrast on the world.  
His mind was scattered. Every time he noticed something new, it completely absorbed his thoughts.  
The burning had spread to his chest and throat, making him cough violently as if he was trying to get the determination out that way. He couldn’t stop it. It was just like whenever he gave the determination to Pap-  
Papyrus.  
Suddenly, everything snapped into place. He felt suddenly calm and focused. With a still trembling hand, he reached out grabbed his leg. He re-attached it with a sharp click and stood. There was a half-finished project on the bench that could help him. A skull-shaped blaster made to focus magic. Could it focus determination?  
The trigger, from what little he could find out about it from the scan of Papyrus, had photon and determination readings in negative values. That information, along with the fact that the machine couldn’t analyze it, indicated that it existed outside of time. Sans couldn’t do anything with the photon readings, but a concentrated blast of determination could stabilize it long enough for it to be removed or destroyed.  
Sans put the finishing touches on the blaster, recalibrating it to focus determination instead of magic, and then tucking it into that space where he drew the bones for his attacks on. He ran back upstairs and checked on Papyrus. His condition hadn’t changed, which was better than Sans had been hoping for.

 

 

Tͭ͊͊͋ͪ̈̀͐ͩ̓̓͗͌͏̛̪̺͇̞̼̰̙̹͚́ḩ̛̰͎̝̞̦̬͒ͧ̉̉͂̅̏͊̍͋̒ͩͨ͗̌̀́̚ę̒͐̄͂ͮ͒̄̿̐ͣͦ̅̇ͯͮ̚͏̸̰̱̩͈͇̞͍̝̺̼̪̳͉̭̭͍̬̠ͅ ̶̨͇͓̭̠̦̹̟̥̥̀ͮ͐̌̐͑̑ͥ͝'̷̶̪̟͍̤̼̗̭̰̰̲̣̼̗̎̒̓̾ͯ̋ͥͪ̐͋ͨͦ͗͋͂̉̾t̷͔̝͈͎̼̠̗̤̻͕͕̣̻̳̘̿ͬͪ̎ͨ̏̾̈͌̑̌ͭ̃̓ͣͨ͞r̶͍̱̠̮͍̲̱̗̞͓͍̯͙͖̠͖̬ͪͣͯͭ̓̓̏ͧ̔ͣͥ̋̎̂ͬ̓̀͝i̴̧̹̲̝̫̿ͧ͗̆͒ͮͪ̌̒̅ͪ̌̂̑͂̚͘͟͝g̡̛̞̫̬͍͙̬͇͚̞̈̏͗́̿ͦ̋ͪ̐̃ͪͮ͑ͨğ̞̜͇̣͎̺̪̺̥͉̖̼͖̩̅ͨ̔͗̃ͭ̏ͨ̈́̿̃̄̊͒ͮ̀́͘͟e̴̤̙̖̪̙̳̝ͬͫ͊͒ͭ̏ͤͧͭ̀ͧ̈ͭ̾̉͌̿͊͢͡ŗ̝̦̗͔ͮ̌ͭ̈̔̐ͧͮ̎ͥͩͫ͋ͪ͒͑̕͟'̙̬͙̭͕̣͕͚̜̥̗͖̮̳͉̝̼ͥͧ̓ͨ̈́̆̉̔̆̋͊̔ͥ̔͂͛̐͑́͢͜͝ ̌ͧ̾ͨ̏̊ͥ̋ͨͬ͐̒͢h̷̪̹̱̤̫̲ͬͪ͆ͬͧ͆ͯ͑̉̑ͦ͐̄̈͌͢͝a̷͓̖̫͍̜̯̻͖̅͛͑͑͒ͧͥ͑͌̈̇ͭͬͪ̈͞d̓̓͐ͬ̿́̀͐͗͗̈̕͠͏̠͙̬̘̱̖̺̲̤͠ ̶͖̞̪̻̣̺̲̹̬͇̱̻̟̖͉̑̓̈̉̃̇͐̑ͥ̈ͯ̋̋̾͡ͅb̧̉ͥ̈́̑̅ͩͧ̚̕͠͏̴̥͖͎̩͍̗͔ͅe̳͇͔̻̥ͧ͂̇͑͆̓͐ͪ̑̄̄́́́e̴̛͚̟͖̖̾̅̂̓̍ͤ͆̂̎͆̇̑̓̑͑̚͜͞͠n̸̮̣̦̮͈̂̈͛ ̯̙̮̬̦̗͚̠̖̞͖̠͈̂̊̓̌̿ͪͨͥ̉͐̇͐̂́͢͡h̤̼̬̺̮̻̺̙̱̦͖̝̐̊̓ͪ̎ͫ͌̐̑̆̉ͪ̕͞o̠̼̙̪͕̯̪̯̭̙͉͔̪̥͉͖̖̖̦͗͗ͫ̋̉ͣͤ̃ͤͥ̔ͣͦ͗̆͊͊͘͟ļ͇̪̪͒͋͂̈̉͗͗̽͊ͮ̓̅̆̔̓͢͜ḏ̵̵̖̖̩͓͓͔̱̟̤͕̹̫ͣͦ̿̆ͮ̍ͬͩ̉͋ͧ̚̕͟i̡̢̯̮̘̟̘͍̦̬̮̤̪ͤ̏̐̒ͧͦ̌n̶̨͔̰͙̞͓̖̪̖̥͉͖͐ͭ͗̑̄ͤ̋ͫͬ͋ͤ͞ͅg̛͍͚̟͎̣̪̳̥̻͖̝͓̺̯̓ͤ͑ͤͤ̓͑̎̓ͣ̓͜ͅ ̭̖̻̘̱͇͎̫̮̟͎͇̩ͅS̵̶̤̣͉̳͎̳͎̞̩̟͔͓ͮͣͧ̊̐ͯͪ̒̈́ͮ̅̋ͬͬ̀̕̕ȧ̡̟̟͔̻͈͎̐͌ͥ̍̉͒ͨ͟͠͡ͅn̨̪̫͕͎̜̫̖͍̮̙̘̼̈ͦ̄̋̈̌̉ͦ͊͡s̛̲̙̻̻̙̏͋͛̓̍̇ͨͩ̏ͥ̉͌̐̀ͦ̍'̵̧͓͚̘̘͕ͫ̐̔ͦ̑ͬͭ͜͡ͅ ̷͚̣̝͎̖̲̥̳̘͋ͬ̑̔́̕͝ͅb̊͂ͣ̉ͧ̃ͪ̀̆̽́ͤ̒ͨ̔̀͡r̾ͪ̀̑̏͐̍̊͆̀͞͏̴̡̮͈̳̙͟o̷̗̝̗̤̦͈̝͕̬̘̞͓̱͙̮̺̠̺ͫͧ͆̾͗ͪͩͧ̆͌̕t̢̯͇̖͙̩̐ͭ͋̄̃͂͗̒̃̚͞ͅh̦̼͈̲͇̮̰̙̤̓͊ͣ̐̾ͧ͂̀́͜ė̷͖̯̮̦͍͚̘ͮ̈́ͨͪͬ̎ͮͪ͛ͦ͒̄̉́͒͛ͯ͠ȑ͆̓͑͐͊ ̸̮̩̬̻̭͈̟̍̑̃̂ͨ̓ͨͩͧ̓̐͊ͨ͠ͅs̛̹̲̲̲̝̹͉͓̮͎̤̜̰͚͚̄̂̐̃̈ͬ̀͢͝t̶͒̽ͤ͊ͣ̍̈́͂̾͋ͤͬ̂̚͏̴̧͈̙̬̲̘̦̻̮̟̳̻a̠̬̺̗̥̯̻̩̫͍̻̺̮̘͛ͭ̍͊̂͆̐ͤͤ͜͞b̶̡̛̰̺͔̜͙̦̞͓̬̹̟̯̫̯̟͚̑̃̆͐́͊ͭͩͪ̈̏ͭͪ̎̈͜͠l̷̢͚̯̱̬͉͉͌̏͗͆͘͜͞e̸̽́́ͤ̈́̑̃ͬ̏̍̔͒̓͏̫̤͍̳͚̮̻̫͕̲̭͈̠̤̜̥͘͠.̶͉͕͖̻͂̒̀̊ͦ͑ͥ̓͑̂ͥ̌̒

 

 

The voice was back again, but Sans kept his focus. It was probably the determination. He could see a blurry shape hovering above Papyrus.

 

G̠̹̼̙̉̅̋ͬ͌́̈̉͞a̰͓͇̺̱̥̺͓̮ͭ͋ͦ̍̓̉̆͡š̄ͭ̅̿ͩ͏̴̜̣̙̦̱̳̬t͉͕̥͙ͭ̋̌e̵̷̛̲͙̟̣̝̍͌ͦ͗̂̍̇̽r̷͇͉̝̼͒ͭ̊͊ ̶̶̢͇̜̳̖̦͙̺͆͗̒w̵̸͕͚̻͉̝͖ͯͥ͑͌͂ͪ̚ͅa͇̣͒ͨ̈́̏͢͡s͚̙͍̻͍͔̹̱̑͋͊͑̀ ̱̞̋ͩ̀͗ͯ̽ö̶͓̬̠͉͡n̬̹̰̺̭̙̳͛͑͆̍ͫ͒̍͡l̵͎̜̺̩̠̖̦͌̑̑̾̌̄͞y̙͙̣͔̩͙̥̜̾͢ ̛̛̪͚̼̟̖̩̰̄ͅt̙̙͕͉ͥ̊̄͑̇ͭ̊ͤr̵ͣ̾ͮ̾̿̄̀͒͏̮̲͙͈̱̬̱̦ẏ̞̟̞̼̞̋̕͘ḯ̸̙̦͉̭̪̼ͭ̽̃̒̉ͮ̋̚͢n̵̻̤͍͇͙͌ͨ̓͑g͈̲̗̯̯̾͛ͭͤ̾̚̚ ͇̹̻̱͈̻̠̜̘ͨ̽ͪ͑͊ť̶̛̌ͥͪö̷̮ ̶͔͚̖̜̿̃͒͘͡h͔͉͎͂̀̚e͖̲̫͈̬̓̿̓̈́̓̿̋ͧ͛l̨̞̞̓̍̆̌ͩp̶̡͖̯͕͓̱̞͔ͥ̐̍ͩͤ̉̇̾́.̶̧̟͎̭̝͍̼̥̉̈̔͊̋̌̚͜ͅ

 

“so that’s your name, huh?” Sans said quietly. He knew he was angry, but he couldn’t seem to feel it. There was just the plan. “well, gaster, meet my new invention. the ‘gaster blaster’. now **get away from my brother**. ”

 

Ś͇̜̋ͦͦͨͫa͉͕̅̈́̄ǹ̯̬͔̮̱̽̆̾͒͂͊s͔̤̼̺̬̙͙'̦ͯ̎̍̌̐ͤ ̫̱͕̂͑͂̈́͋b͇͈͈̖̳̖̭̃ͧ͑ȑ̜̱͎͔͕̔o̲̠̽t̜̻̹̟͊ͦ̒ͤ̂h̯́̈́ͩ̏̍e̙̩̣ͧͫ̊r̝̼̠̖̦̯ͬ̔ ͎̘̝͖ͯ̊̾w̯͎o̩̳͙̻̳ͤ̉ͧ̚ͅȕ͑̏͊l̬̺͙̰̰̿̒̽̔̓̂dͯ̇̂̄ͤ ͖̤̤̻͈͎ͮ̃̽̏ͩͧͩb̦̓̍e̻̝̊ ̠̪͉̰ͨṣ̬̲͔͇ͪ̒ͣ̓̅̚c̟̞̥̖̞̬͙ͦ̄̄̇̀̈̎a̪̤̭̻̿̓t̥̥̪̜̳̿̎t̠ͨ̾ͧͯ͌ͤe͓͖̔r̹̪͖e̻̘̲̝̱̹͐͊̑d̳̗̞̪̩̻̜ͬ̑̏ ̱̦̤͚̠̫ͯt̹h̙̣̘͇ͩr̯̪̜̭̺̞̝̾̓o̝̭̳̥̤̹̙ǘ͙̖͐̎ͅg̤͙h͋ͩͥ ̿͒̄̅̇͊ṯ̩̹̪̈ͪi̩̹ͭ͛m͔̙̞̤̗͓̣̔̄̅̏͗͗è̲̳̟͙̙̝ a̺̫̗̞͚̜͊̐ͫͨn̥͚̥̬̙͉̼̽̾̀d̩͔͈̱͎ͫ̑̿͑ ̹̰͈̺͇͈̐͗͒͑̚̚s͔̈̽̏ͫ̚p̜a͕͋̊ͫ͂̈ͥc̫̯͑͌̂̃ͥ̂̂e̤͕̟͖ ̮̰͎̭̬̩w̙͖̟̹̺̱̞̅ͪi̇̋̉͌ͭͣ͛t̫̻ͫ̈h͎̤͗̉̑ͤͧo̳͌u͍̪̬̯͚͛͆̒ͨͨt͎̹̟̥̹̺͚̚ ͉̟̘͒G̜̫̮̤̠͇ͅa͕͇̋ͦ̑̋̉͆ͫș̲̬̗̺̳̽́͗t̞͙̜̰̼́̀ͧ̏e̝̽́r̙̬̭ͧ͂̇ͭ̽'͔̟̐̃̓s͇̝̘̬͓̟͋̋̅ͩ̔ ̤h̳̘̗̣̉͂ͩ̊e̳̪̹̱̻̠̗ͮl̠̯̤̜̍̇p̰̙̥͊ͭ͒ͯ̌ͧ̚.̠͓̥͈̬̼̈́

 

Sans wanted to stop and ask what Gaster meant by that. But the blaster was already charging. He was too filled with determination to stop. If he aimed just above Papyrus, it should hit Gaster without even touching Pap. It launched, shooting a bright red beam at the shape. It lit up a cracked face and two long, thin hands. The beam punched straight through it, giving the shape a more solid form. It reached down and, before Sans could stop it, grabbed Papyrus’ hand and lifted it into the path of the beam. Sans tried to stop shooting, but he was a second too late. The shape faded away with a final grin, letting Papyrus’ hand fall back on the bed. The impact disconnected it from the rest of him.  
“pap! pap, no, pap, i’m sorry...” Sans cried, running over as the blaster faded. Papyrus opened his eyes and focused on him.  
“SANS? WHAT HAPPENED?”  
“pap... you were... you were sick. it’s been months!”  
Papyrus looked confused. “WHY DOES IT SEEM... LIKE IT’S BEEN LONGER THAN THAT?”  
“i dunno, bro. no-one knows what happened to you. can you remember anything?”  
“NOT REALLY. JUST DREAMS,” he said, flinching. His eyes flickered orange for a second. “MY HEAD HURTS.”  
“don’t worry about it. you’ll feel better soon. h-hey, did i ever tell you about this cool trick only skeletons like us can do?” Sans asked, trying not to look at where Papyrus’ arm lay on the bed, disconnected from the rest of him. Papyrus shook his head. “well, watch this!” Sans grabbed his own arm at the elbow, gently pressing his fingers into the joint. With a click, his arm came off, thankfully painlessly.  
“BROTHER, HOW-?”  
“you can do it too, pap. but maybe you shouldn’t try it until i teach you how to do it properly. for now, just try putting your arm back on.” Sans said, praying that he could. Papyrus looked down and jumped, apparently just noticing that his arm had fallen off.  
“H-HOW DO I PUT IT BACK ON?” he yelped, picking up his arm and waving it around.  
“calm down, pap! it’s simple. you just put it back where it should go and it kinda... pops back on,” Sans explained, putting his own arm back with a click. Papyrus watched and copied him, flexing his fingers experimentally. Behind his back, Sans was doing the same with his own arm to make sure there was no damage. “NYEH HEH HEH! THAT’S SO COOL! CAN YOU TEACH ME NOW?”  
“maybe later. i have a promise to keep first. i didn’t bring you all the way down to snowdin for nothing.”  
Papyrus sat bolt upright, looking out the window. “WE’RE GONNA MAKE A SNOWMAN?”  
“we’ll make as many snowmen as you want. nothing much else to do now that we live here,” Sans said with a nervous grin. He hadn’t been able to ask Papyrus how he felt about moving. He relaxed when Papyrus’ face lit up and he jumped out of bed, as healthy as he had ever been and happier than Sans had ever seen him.


	2. This Was Going To Happen Eventually (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a few months after the events of Brothertale.

Sans was at his post, slacking off. Usually he would have been fast asleep, but the Dogi had visited and their loving yapping had given him a headache. So he was awake when Frisk walked out of the ruins. For a terrifying second he thought that they had RESET for some reason, until he saw Toriel standing in the doorway saying goodbye to them. When she saw him, she waved hello.  
_ah, the kid was just visiting,_ he thought with a relieved sigh. He waved back and was confused when Toriel gave him a concerned look and pointed at her eye. He shrugged to show he didn’t get it. Frisk said something quietly and Toriel slipped back into the ruins. They waited until the door closed before shakily moving into their dodging stance. Sans checked behind him to see what they could be getting ready for, but there was nothing.  
“ what’s up, kid?” he asked, moving closer. They flinched, pressing themselves against the door. “hey, come on. i thought we were past that.” Neither of them had been uncomfortable around each other for a while, only jumping of cringing away from the other if they were caught unaware after some bad memories.  
“No matter how hard you try, you’ll never get past this door,” they said, breathing heavily. “Even if you kill me, I’ll just-”  
Sans put a hand up to stop them, and they winced as if expecting an attack. “waitwaitwait. kill you?”  
“Huh? Your eye’s lit up for no reason” they whispered. “B-but... you’re still Sans? My Sans, I mean? The one that d-doesn’t want to...?”  
Sans put his hand in front of his eye, feeling the warmth from it. He hadn’t even realized it was lit up. He backed off a little to let the kid breathe. “oh man, sorry about that, must’ve gone off without me thinking about it. this headache’s _splittin’_ my attention up, heheh. ”  
They gave an obvious pity laugh before stepping forward. “You have a headache?”  
“yeah, the dogi dropped by. you know how loud they can get.”  
“Sans. You live with _Papyrus_. How in the world would someone being loud give you a headache?” they asked, stopping just far enough away that they would be able to dodge if he started attacking. Other than the ever-present sense of all the souls around them, Sans couldn’t feel any genocidal tendencies, but he was glad they stayed at arm’s length just in case.  
“... good point. ”  
“This is the second incident in two days, it can’t be a coincidence.”  
“wait, second incident?”  
“Yeah, yesterday, when- oh. Um, I kinda promised I wouldn’t tell unless it became relevant,” they said, looking away. After a second, they sighed. “No, this probably is relevant. Do you remember yesterday, when Papyrus decided to visit Tori with me? Halfway through tea, he sort of... blanked out.” Before Papyrus had mastered the ability to peek into other universes, he had sometimes accidentally used it when he was upset. It was worrying at first, but with a bit of practice it had stopped completely. What did it mean now that it was back? “At first I thought it was just Papyrus being Papyrus, since Tori and I were laying on the puns pretty thick, but after the first minute we started to worry. I made some excuses and got us out of there as fast as I could, and he snapped out of it as soon as we got out of the ruins. When I asked about what universe he was in, he looked confused. Apparently he hadn’t been anywhere. He said it was as if we jumped straight from tea to being back out here with me. I can’t tell if he was lying or not though. Normally I’d just believe whatever he said, but when he told me he couldn’t remember his eyes went orange for a second.”  
Sans fought to keep his breathing steady. The eye-fire was a defence mechanism, so it could have been any number of things that caused it. He really could have been lying. But that just wasn’t like Papyrus. “why wouldn’t you tell me about that?”  
“We figured we’d wait until you picked it up on your machine or it happened again. We didn’t want to worry you over nothing, because... well, recently you’ve been sleeping even less than Papyrus.”  
“well, recently Pap’s been sleeping a lot more,” he growled, unable to keep the rising anger out of his voice. And besides, how was he meant to sleep with everyone in his house just blatantly _living_ all over the place, their god-damned souls _distracting_ him and making it _impossible to think_?  
Frisk stepped back again. “S-Sans?”  
“ did i... say that out loud?” he asked, trying and failing to get his normal white eye lights back.  
“We need to figure out what’s going on. But your lab is such a small space, and I don’t think either of us want to be close to each other right now. I can’t send you down there by yourself because I don’t want you alone right now. I can’t go down there by myself for the same reason. Wait! How could I forget!” They pulled out their phone and hit the first number in their contacts. “Hey Papyrus-”  
“no! no, frisk, kid, please, you can’t...”  
Fisk held up a hand for silence. “Pap, can you come to the ruins? Sans and I need your help. Yeah, we’re fine. Just get here as soon as possible.” They snapped the phone shut. “Okay! So-”  
“ _this_ is your plan? ” he yelled. For a second, the thought of killing the kid didn’t seem so bad. He forced himself to breathe. That wasn’t his thought. He didn’t want to kill anyone. Those thoughts revolted him (they didn’t really, but he like to pretend they did). He had to calm down before he did something stupid. “you can’t bring him here. i’m begging you.”  
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. There’s only three of us. You can’t be left alone, and only you and I know how to work your machines. But we can’t be in the lab together because there’s barely enough room to dodge in there.” As much as he hated it, they were right. “Think about it: that first day you snapped at me, back in the lab, it was in defence of Papyrus. So even when you get like that, you’re still trying to protect him. Only a moment of full control from the other Sans could get you to hurt him. Probably. And in that time, Pap’s strong enough to hold you off until the real you get control back. Or at least long enough to call me and wait for me to get back.”  
“but... he doesn’t know.” Sans was aware of his brother approaching. He tried to tell himself that was because of what the other Papyrus had done with his dust, and that strange link between them now, but couldn’t shake the feeling that he was beginning to sense souls from further away.  
“You’re going to have to tell him about it sometime. Maybe being forced to be honest now could be good for you. In every timeline I’ve seen, there are still things you won’t talk about. If you can’t talk to me, at least talk to Papyrus. No matter what, he’ll still love you. And... you really need to stop trying to handle everything by yourself. It’s not good for you.”  
Papyrus was getting close. With a sigh, Sans walked back over to his post and sat down. “alright, kid. i’ll talk to him.”

Papyrus was a bit confused, as usual. Frisk hadn’t sounded worried, but he had heard Sans in the background, and he’d sounded desperate. He was begging about something. He put _Advanced Puzzle Construction for Critical Minds_ back on the shelf and hurried to the ruins.  
“ DO NOT FEAR! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS ARRIVED!” he called, striding in.  
“Great timing, as always,” Frisk said with a smile. “I have to go down to Sans’ lab for a bit. Can you stay here and guard him for me?”  
“NOT A PROBLEM! MAY I ASK WHAT I AM GUARDING HIM FROM?”  
The human paused. “I’ll let Sans tell you all about it.”  
“makin’ me explain everything... ‘s a bit cruel, kid,” Sans grumbled, putting his head on his post and covering it in his arms. Something was really bothering him. He was slurring his words as if he was drunk, which he only ever did if he was too upset to bother talking properly. Or, you know, actually drunk.  
“He wouldn’t believe it unless it came directly from you.” Frisk said, shrugging as they left. There was an awkward silence between Sans and Papyrus.  
“SANS-”  
“just... gimme a minute.” Sans breathed deeply and looked up at Papyrus. His eye was burning brightly. “you’re not guarding me from anything. You’re guarding everyone else from me.”  
“I’M NOT SURE I UNDERTAND.”  
“i’m a danger to everyone pap.”  
“BROTHER, I KNOW YOU WOULDN’T DO ANYTHING TO HURT ANYONE,” Papyrus said, but his voice wavered.  
Sans chuckled creepily and walked out from behind his post. “that’s because you didn’t see it. the other me... he didn’t realize, he never took the time to look. he was too busy _killing everyone_. ”  
“SANS, WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”  
“if they had checked the machine properly, they would have known. memories don’t come for free. when they let us remember, pap, it wasn’t a gift. it was a contract. we remembered what happened, and in exchange, we got something from them. you from frisk, and me... **from chara**. ”  
Papyrus stepped back. “S-SANS-”  
Sans blinked and seemed to go back to normal. “but that wasn’t me. it was the Sans from that other timeline. you believe that, right?” Papyrus paused for a second too long. “heheh. you know, i have trouble believing that too. even if it was true, when chara killed him, he and i became one. i’ve managed to keep myself from doing anything. but it’s gotten worse. frisk thinks it’s related to what happened to you yesterday. while we’re on the subject, why did you try to hide that from me, papyrus?”  
Papyrus could feel bones appearing behind him, inches away from his back. He steadied himself. No matter what was happening to Sans, it was still him. Papyrus walked over to his brother and knelt down, pulling him into a hug. “I SUPPOSE IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY. BUT FROM NOW ON, WE HAVE TO STOP DOING THIS. NO MORE SECRETS.”  
He was relieved to feel the bones fade away and Sans shakily return the hug. “pap... i’m scared. i can’t remember what i was doing.”  
“IT’S OKAY, BROTHER. NOTHING’S GOING TO HAPPEN, I PROMISE. I WON’T LET YOU DO ANYTHING YOU’LL REGRET.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I regret using brackets of Other!Sans’ thoughts. Now I can’t use them for snide comments on Sane!Sans’ part without making it look like sh*ts gonna go down. Oh well.  
> It’s weird. Sans interrupts people’s speeches with his narration more than Papyrus. I think it’s because Sans usually trying to think through the implications of everything they say whereas Pap just takes things as they come.


	3. This Was Going To Happen Eventually (Part 2)

Frisk waited until they were right outside of Snowdin before they allowed themself to show exactly how much they were freaking out. They knew there wasn’t much choice, but they already regretted leaving Papyrus alone with Sans. Leaning against a tree, they put a hand over their heart. It was racing, but that was good. They were alive because Sans _could_ control himself. They had to believe that. And if anything did happen, they could LOAD. They had made a save just inside the ruins out of pure habit, which gave them something to fall back on.  
_Deep breaths..._ They thought, waiting for their heart to slow to its normal pace. _Alright. Enough wasting time._  
They put on a brave face as they walked through Snowdin and directly to the basement lab. The machine was uncovered, which was good. Frisk always had trouble taking the sheet off it, since they hadn’t perfected the stupid wrist-flicking thing Sans did to stop it from getting caught as it fell. They skipped the initial scan of the timeline, instead going through the steps necessary to focus the machine on Sans. They really wanted to find out what was wrong with Papyrus, but they had to have priorities. Sans was the bigger threat, so he had to be fixed first. If they _could_ fix him.  
They entered the final few commands, but the scan came up with nothing. Literally _nothing at all_. Had they made a mistake? Maybe this machine was slightly different from the one they had been taught to use. They went through the steps again, paying close attention to any differences in the prompts that would tell them what to do, but there were none. Still, it only returned a null value. They switched the machine to analyse Papyrus, and were glad to see that his results were normal. And that proved they were using the machine correctly.  
They flipped open their phone and called Papyrus. “Pap, how’s Sans looking?”  
“ UM... GOOD? I THINK? HE’S ASLEEP AT THE MOMENT. NOT THAT HE’S BEING LAZY THIS TIME! HIS EYE IS JUST BURNING A LOT OF MAGIC RIGHT NOW, AND IT’S TIRING HIM OUT. ... HE... TOLD ME WHAT HAPPENED. IN THE OTHER TIMELINE. YOU WERE RIGHT. I DON’T THINK I WOULD HAVE BELIEVED YOU IF YOU TOLD ME.”  
“Right. Okay. Just don’t press him for more details, okay? We don’t want to get him riled up right now.” Still a null value. They set it to check the past, hoping to pinpoint the second Sans apparently disappeared from the timeline. From the scanner’s point of view, anyway.  
“... SOMETHING IS WRONG OVER THERE, ISN’T IT?”  
Frisk wanted to lie and say everything was fine, but reminded themself that Papyrus was a part of this now. “Yeah. Sans isn’t showing up on the machine. It’s meant to be able to detect and analyse anything, as well as the past of that thing.”  
“SO IF IT CAN’T DO THAT FOR SANS, DOES THAT MEAN SOMETHING’S GETTING IN THE WAY?”  
“It can’t be. It can’t pick him up at any point in time. If there was something ‘getting in the way’ of the scan, I would be able to see exactly when it started.”  
“WHAT IF IT COULD CHANGE TIME LIKE YOU?”  
Frisk stopped re-entering the command to analyse Sans. While Frisk didn’t actually ‘change time’, they jumped around timelines, who could say that there wasn’t someone who could directly alter a timeline’s past? “Pap, you’re a genius! If, for now, we assume that there is something somehow cloaking Sans, then a scan focused _around_ him instead of on him should tell us something about whatever it is. Unless it can cloak itself too, but it’s worth a try. Alright, stand back and watch Sans really carefully. Tell me if anything happens to him.” Frisk started by focusing on where Sans should be, his post near the ruins, and widening the search area. “Haha! I see it! Some sort of distortion. Anything on your end?”  
“ HE’S STILL ASLEEP.”  
“Good! I’m going to try to focus on it!” Frisk narrowed the search down to the distortion. The machine let out a quiet whine that slowly grew as it tried to analyse the thing. Something was definitely wrong with it. Maybe it was cloaking itself, but the cloak was imperfect. Frisk started typing in the commands that would make it focus on the ‘ripples’ that the distortion was creating. That seemed to put the machine under even more pressure. With a tremendous crack, it exploded, flinging pieces everywhere. Frisk jumped back and dodged around the flying metal shards.  
“Damn! That-” they started to say before being cut off by a violent coughing fit. It took a second of staring down at their hands, red with coughed-up blood, and the jagged metal spike sticking out of their chest before they realised what had happened. Their phone was still hanging limply from their hand. Everything started to blur as Frisk watched their HP bar slowly drain. It took all of their remaining strength to raise the phone to their mouth and say, “S-sorry Pap. I wasn’t… fast enough. D-don’t worry… I’ll be… right back…”  
Papyrus’ worried shouts faded as the phone clattered to the floor, followed by Frisk’s lifeless corpse.

“FRISK!” Papyrus shouted. He could hear the human’s blood dripping to the ground. He started running toward Snowdin, abandoning his post without a second thought. Even though he knew they would just LOAD, they would be okay, they would be back, he had to find them. His legs started shaking, and he tripped into the snow. He couldn’t get back up. The image of the human, the tiny, fragile human, beaten and broken just like all the others in the judgement hall, the ones he had refused to let himself think about. His breath was coming in shuddering gasps as he curled up in the snow, trying to block out what he had done and what had just happened. He wanted to forget his promise, to go back to ignoring all the bad things, to live in blissful ignorance of everything (but that was no way to live). He couldn’t lose the human (they would be back), and he was still worried about Sans (who wasn’t gone yet.)  
There was a wrenching feeling in his soul, and he sobbed in relief. The human would be back. But even as that relief filled him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being torn away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! The Genocide Run's Papyrus finally appears! You didn't think I'd forgotten him, did you?  
> But what's up with him? He doesn't seem to want to kill anyone at all! Oh well, guess we'll have to find out!


	4. This Was Going To Happen Eventually (Part 3)

Sans was fast asleep when he felt that wrenching on his soul. _weird, usually when i’m asleep i can’t feel-_  
The thought was cut off by a sharp, snapping pain. Sans opened his eyes with a gasp, expecting to be back in his room in Snowdin, but instead… there was nothing. Not even darkness, but definitely no light.  
“ hello?” he called.  
  


"Ḩ̴̓̀҉̺̗̺̟̜̳̼͈̞̦̥͖̭̹̕ë̻̳͉̣̥̰̞͓̲̺̻̗̠͖͓͉͇́̑̏ͫ̐͐̕͝͠͡l̄̀ͣ̓́͑͏̼̹̭̥̰̗͘͢͢l̷̢̥͍͕̫̥̟̜̮̯̟̭̔͂̌ͤ͋͐̓̀͂̎ͧͥͧͮ̓ͫ̅́͡ȯ̧͕̫̪̹͍͇͕͖̙̳̥̺̭̅̊͂́͋͢"̷̷̘͉͕̲̙̹͈̟̰͍̻̙̜̫̘̭͛ͦ͗̇̓̽̇ͭ̏̽̓̀" the nothing replied.  
  
  
This was starting to get creepy. Sans considered staying silent and waiting for something to change, like he always did. As he waited, time seemed to stretch on forever. After a thousand years, he had to speak. “where are we?” he asked. It had only been a second since the nothing had last replied. The conflicting timeframes gave Sans a headache.  
  
  
"N̷̨̒̃̈̇̊̔̋͗ͨ̏ͨ͘҉̧͇̤̥̭͇̫͙̜͈̘͓͚̮͚̻̤ȏ̢̡͓̻͎̳̣͉̭͎̰̱̻̭̅̾͗̒͂̑ͫ̉̃̋ͅͅw̴̷̶͎̬̩̥̫̘̟̩͚͉͗̾ͥ͑̾ͧ͘͠h͔̱̳̳̭̣̣͈̩̭̻͓̩̯͒ͦ͐͂̑̓͊ͩ̇̏̀͆̆͢͜͞ę̧͍̫̭̟̼̮̘͐ͥ̈̋ͥͪ̈͐͊͐̄̀ͥ́͒́̚͡ͅr̵̹̫̬̤̼̫̊͋͒̉ͅę̷̤̰͖̤̗̟̃̐̃̋͟͞ͅ.̴̸ͭ̃ͪ̐ͤ͒͛ͤ͛ͧͮ̑͐̏̇҉͈̭̝͚̟

  
Where did he know that voice from? It was hard to remember anything over the buzzing.  
  
  
  
"Gͪ̈́̐͌aͤͣ̏̂s͆ͯ̈ͤ̂t͐̍ͦͣeͣ͋̐͑̒̚ṙ̵̫̺̣̙̞̦͚̹͆͂̎ͭ̒ͥ̓ͪ̐̂̋́̔͗͊ͮ̑͗͌͗́ͅc͇̼̳̱͖̣̙̪̠̮̞̗̠͕͈͂͋̈́͒ͦͣͭ͗̍͆̂̾̒̀̈̓͢͡ͅa̧̡̦̟̩͓̟̙̜͓̩̳̜̳̙̰̫͙ͤͨ̈ͫ̏ͧͮ̎̆̒̕͘͞ṇ̶̺̤̗͙̻͇̾ͬ̄̅̿̓ͩ̏̀͘͜͠ ̷̡̳̲̪̼̠̻̠̺̜͈̜̠̮̰̖̮̘̮̓͐ͤͨ͆̃́ͨͦ͛̚͠͠s̘̻̱̦ͥ̄̃̕̕͟h̸̴̷̢̛͍͇̦̳̹̺͓͎̯͔͖ͨ̃͆̇͌ͤ͌̅͛͊ͬ̎ȏ̴͆ͪͮ͆͒̏͐̆̈́̅͏̧̧̜̩̮̘̱̤͙͎̹̘̜̩͢w̵̪͈̪̗̳̹̣̻͉̰̲̯̮̪̮ͮ͂̇͘ͅͅ ̵̛̙̹͈̳͍̹̈ͨ̒͟͟y̡͈͎͕͇̬̺͈̲̜̗̫̑̓̍͋ͩ̃̋̇ͧ̈́̎͒͢͢͞ỏͥ̅͒͛͑͛͗ͥ́͢͢͏̙̱̤͉͖̭͇͖̭u̴̧̩͙͉̭͉͓͔̪̹̺͎͉̖̻̗̅ͨͣ̽̒̍ͮ͊̔ ̛͐̄̋̉͋̑̂ͦ̎ͣͪ̔̎̇̔́͏̹̮̱̝̝̟͚̣̟̪̱̰͚̺͍̟̰͢ͅw̡͇̼̫̰̬̪̦̻ͯ̈̂ͯ̈̑͑̑̀ͣ͌̓̉̍̀̽ͤ̚͘h̛̺͖͎̤̙̫͔̬̅̄͗ͮ͑͡ą͖̪͙̰̗̬̯̙̫̣͔̹̤͎̦̓͊̋̏ͥ̚̕͝ͅt͋̒͛̓̐͆ͮͦ́͟͏̛͙͉̺̲̗̖̻̫͚͚͔̯̪ ̠̱̻̙͉͖͚͉͍̱̤͇̰̦̠͈ͮ͛̉̾̆ͥ͐̊̋͌ͫ͗̎̀̚͢h̸̢̟̱̤̠͔̫̻̬́ͮͩ͑͐͛͌̒̈́ͮ̕͞a̧̠̻̖̯̲̘̯̯͆̑ͬ͆ͮ̄̿̾̌̋̀s̵̴̨͍̥̮͔̻̻͓̩͉͕͕͕̆̈́̍ͭ̆̃̍͆̿͛̀͠ͅͅ ̡̞͙̟͕͖̰̖͎ͩ͐̓̄̅ͩͬͣͤ̒ͫ̈̾̍͝h̵̰̺͔͇̤̹̻̮͕̙ͦͣ̌̀͢aͧ̉̄ͮ̈́ͯ̽̃ͥ͑̂̑̾̆̌ͧ̐҉̛̞͕̰͍p̵̥̰͕̻̹̩͓̮͇̰͎̩̤͖͖̣͚͍͈̒͗͒̇̃̀͜͜͞p̢̨̡̛͙̻͚̘̮̠̜̖̹͕̜̻̠̹̥͙̥̣ͣ̂͐̐̓ͯ́̉̌̍̈́̄eͥ̔̾̈͛̈́̑̿͌̓͛̈́͗̈͛̓͏̩͍͙̜͍͎͉̼͍̲̩͚̕͠͞͝ͅn̴͒̉̽͒̅̽ͬ̊ͤ͊ͩ͐ͤ̇̄̀͢͏̫̰̤͕̳͇̹͔̳̬̹ͅe̢̡̲̖͔̼͈̟̳̹̭̝̳̮͕̰̾͐̃̎̀̀̿ͭͨ̔͂ͥ̎̅ͦ̓̎̆̕̕d̝̗͇͕̞̹͔͕̰͖̹̖̈́̉͊̀̿̉͛ͯ̉̀ ̔͐́ͦ͒́҉̵̣͍̥̠͝͠ṭ̴̶͍̻̙̏͐ͯ̋̍͋͌ͪͦͤͦͭ̉͋ͯ̄̌͋͋͜o̴̢̢̥̩̹̲̟̬̼̻̳̩̤̙̲͓̒̔ͥͬ̍́͊͗̊̽͂̎͗̆̊̃̚ ͣ̋ͧͬ̾ͪ̊ͭͪͥ̑̾ͥ̉͋͐͏̷̡͙͕͙͇̘̬͓͓̠̫̞̤̯̖͓͉̜̦͔̕͢Sa̻̮̙̙̳n͖̫s͈̮͎̘͍̜͕.̬͕͙̯̳̹͙͒̏ͯ̽ͮ̀̀  
  
  
“gas…ter…?” He knew that name, and he didn’t get a good feeling about it. But there didn’t seem to be anything else around, and that ‘Gaster’ seemed to know something. “alright. show me.” There was a low chuckle and a window opened up in the nothingness in front of Sans.

 

"W̴̧͖͈͓̼͉̗̱̱͚̙̥̥̘̲͉̣̹̮ͭ̈̓ͭ̈̊̆̇̅͐̂͛ͩ͠͠a̵̴͖̼̭͚̖͍̼̦͎ͥ̊̔̀ͧ̆̊ͪ̍̇̓͠t̶̬̳̙̥̩̰̙̔ͣͮ̀ͨ͆̎̉̇̓̈ͣ͛́͘͡c̾̃͛̄ͩ̑҉̶̶̘̺͈̠͔̘͍ͅh̶̴̷͖̝̯̞̳̱̯̜̗̠͖͈͓̖͍̟̽̽̋ͬ̓̎̆͞ͅ.̷̣̱̯̖̰̹̙̱̺̞̭̠͗͒͛̔͊̔́́̏̌ͬ̊̀͡"

 

* * *

 Papyrus woke up tired. Ever since the defeat of Chara, he was always tired. But he couldn’t rest. He was a part of the Royal Guard now, meant to protect the human. Although, he had already managed to fail at that. The memory of that last phone call and just how badly he had reacted was burned into his brain. For a moment, he regretted Frisk giving him the power to remember timelines, but that didn’t last. He really was glad that he could remember things. Using that power, he could finally actually help the human. He had to hold on to his achievements.  
He got up and ran through his morning routine automatically. He would look for the human outside the ruins. If they weren’t there, he would just look around the Underground until he found them. Breakfast was spaghetti for two. He ate his serving and wrapped up the other one, leaving it on the table. If Frisk came back before him, they would find breakfast on the table.

* * *

Sans was confused. He made sure to hold on to that feeling, because it distracted him from the strange numbness seeping into his bones. He focused on all the details that didn’t make sense. The room he shared with Papyrus was one of the bigger points of confusion. It was back the how it was before the human had moved in, with the single bed and tidy floors. Then there was the breakfast. Papyrus had usually made some for him too. Maybe he had become a little too used to it, but Papyrus had never stopped making it for him, no matter how many times he had threatened to.

 

  
"S̙̦̹͍̫̹̱̼͓̬̘͉͎͒ͨ̅͑̄ͭͯ̄ͯ͌a̺̙͕̯͉̻͉̼͋ͪͪ̅n͉͙͇̮͖͚̝͚̓ͪ̂ͧ̒͐̔ͩ̌̈̔͋͌ͪs̤͇̩̲͓̝̮̮̥̮̯͙͖͇̝̱̖̺͌́͐ͦ̉ͦ͗͐̀̈̐ͥ̽̄ ͔̮̰̹́̃ͦ̽̓̀̋ͮ͛͆s̹͍̬̯̭̺̝̜̜͉̼͍̪̲̣̘͐ͥͯ̚t͔̹̟̣͔̦͙̱͕͛ͦ͋̎̈́͒i̺̙̹̲̝̩̟͙̊͒̈́ͯ̓̈́ͩͥ̒̇ͬ̉͆̃͋̽̈́̆l͙̜̜̝̗̟̲̖͕̥̝̰̣͎̦̰̯ͭ̓̈̆ͥ̌͗̇ͨ̒͒̔ͫͪ̀ͅl̬̫̰͈̭̪̤͍͓̗̺̦̠̉ͦ̋̽̀ͨ̒̆͗͆̒̚ ̮̗̻̱̣͔̳͍͉͕̦͚͙̘̳̤̣̪͛̒ͧ͑̑ͩ̿̈ͪͅd̳̘̭̪̮̞̺͔͍͚͎̙̬͍̜̟̣̫͒̿̈́̓͌ͯ̂ͦo͕̜̜̝̟͉̹̜͖̥̦͕̺͙̞̹̦͈̠͆ͬ̌̂ͨͬͭ͋̇̋̏͐e͍̳͈̲̥̤͖͔̯̞̼̰ͯ̃̽͂̾ͪ̋̀ͭͫͥ̌̃̔s̳͍͙͎͔̺͈̝͙͇̑̽̓̓ͣ̓͒̉̃ͬ̒̃̂̐n̖̥̞̯͎̳̹̱͓̝͓̳̅͊̓̍ͮ'͍̩̖̥͈͖̖̯̖̙̗̠̻̫̜͙̺̹̭͊̈̋ͦͮ̔ͮ̉͑̋ͭ͑̊͑̒ͨ̔t̙̠͚̬̠̬̗̣̯ͯ̊̿̌̆ͬ̈́ͭ̽́ ̘͇̹̜̞̘̹̹̯͍̖͍͌̇ͧͮ͋̈́̃̏ͫ̓̿ͪ̅̇̒̍̀̚s͓̥̜̺̝͖̣͍̮͍̣̱̰͉̈́͑ͤͣ̓ͤͣͥ̍̑ͪ̑͌̂͂͛́͒ȇ̻̖̯͎͌ͧ̓̈͌ͭ͋̑̅ͫ̚è͓͔̺̬̮̯̙͇̠̰̬̆̀ͣ͂͋ͮͥͣ̋̊͆̓ͅ?̝͙͚̥͇̗̝̞͉͍͖͈̳̰̜̮̞ͦ̀͛ͤ̏ͦ"

 

* * *

Frisk stood, still feeling the phantom pain of the metal shard through their chest. Why had the machine done that? They hadn’t been asking it to do anything out of the ordinary. They sighed, brushing themself off. They had to sneak through Toriel’s home and out the door to the rest of the Underground. They loved her, but they didn’t feel like making any excuses about their sudden reappearance in the ruins. The door made far too much noise as they opened it, but no-one came running. Once they made it out and closed the door behind them, they decided to wait there. Papyrus would be around to pick them up in a bit. While they waited, they took out their cell phone and called Alphys.  
“Hey, Alphys. It’s Frisk. Your machine exploded,” they said. After the wave of frantic apologies subsided, they continued. “Everyone’s fine, I just wanted to ask if you had any idea why that could have happened?”

* * *

“So Alphys made the machine in this timeline. Good for her. I still don’t see what you’re trying to show me,” Sans said, rubbing his eyesocket. He focused on the feeling of bone against bone. From the nothingness, he got the impression of someone shaking their head, disappointed. The screen changed to yet another scene.

* * *

Frisk didn’t have to wait long before Papyrus arrived.  
“I WAS QUITE WORRIED, HUMAN. I WOULD PREFER IF YOU TRIED VERY HARD NOT TO DIE ANY MORE,” he said as he walked Frisk back home.  
“I’ll be sure to try.” They rolled their eyes, but their smile betrayed how fake their annoyance was. As soon as they made it back home, Frisk went back down to the basement.  
“HUMAN! YOU ARE GOING BACK IMMEDIATELY?” Papyrus asked.  
“Yeah. I’ve got nothing else to do.”  
“BUT YOU HAVEN’T EVEN HAD BREAKFAST!”  
Frisk yawned. “Can you bring it down for me? I need to fix the machine.”  
“I… I REFUSE! COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN QUITE TIRING FOR YOU! SO TODAY YOU WILL EAT, AND REST, AND _TOMORROW_ YOU MAY WORK ON THE MACHINE! ”  
Frisk froze in place, surprised at the outburst. Papyrus had to have been stressed to explode like that. “Haha, jeez Pap. If you’re going to let it _get under your skin_ so much…” Papyrus groaned, shooing Frisk inside. They laughed as they ran in, and wouldn’t stop making pasta puns all the way through breakfast. Papyrus grabbed Frisk by the collar as soon as they had finished eating and marched them up to bed. “Ah, this bed is so comfortable, it makes me forget all my troubles.”  
“ WELL, THAT IS-”  
“When I lie here, it feels like nothing _matress_ anymore,” Frisk said with a giggle. Papyrus glared and left without another word. Once their laughing petered out, Frisk slipped out of bed and rummaged around in their drawers. Hidden underneath a pile of socks so that Papyrus would never find it was a framed photo for Frisk, surrounded by all of their friends, standing outside on the surface.  
  
!̖̈̄@͚̻̹#͉̲͛̈́̐̒̿̑̑$ͫͣ̿ͧ̎̈ͩ%͚̭̺̖^̞̘͖̖̜͆ &̥͎*̭̻̙̼̝̐̎́ͯ̐()͖͈̠!̘̹ͨͨ̐@̌ͭ#̯̼̥̺͍̫̠̐̓̈̉$͚̮͎̲̭̥ͨ̃͐ͅ%^̟̔̈̄ͧ̾&̠̘͌̌͗ͮ̇̈́̌*̝͕̯̞̰͈͑ͧ̇́(͕̣͓̦͓̰ͥ͛̽)͔̇̿!̤̞͇̻@̫͉͇̞͖̃#̩̒$̞̖̭̫ͬͥ̑ͮ%̹̥̗͖̻^̜̠̻͒ͭ&̣̟̤̙̯͎ͥ̂ͨ̎ͪ́ͥ*̞͖͚̦̱̑̆̈͌ͅ(̩̼̯̯̲̯ͭ)͇̦̙̜̻̠̺ͦ̂̉̆ͧ!͕̏̑̀͒̉̎̒@͍͓͓̲̻̩ͧ̀#̼̆ͦ̓̐$%̩̱̪͋͆ͮ̈ͯ̍  
͐ͣ̃́̿ͅA̠̿̏ͫ͊ͬ̌N̥͙̫̬ͪ̓ͯ̑ͨ͛͒D͔̖̪̝̟̹̂̉̈͊̐̅ͅ ̯̱͔̅S̥ͅA̲̬̬͉̭̠̹Ṉ͉̭̖̦͕ͤ͐̄͂S̯͔͈̟͗̾̐ ̔͑͋ͯͩW̥͑A͎͕̝͚͉̘ͬ̒͊͋̐̅͒S̳͇̭̣͋̅ͩ̿ͮ́ͅ ̳͓̝͕͎͓̗̄ͯ̄ͤ̑͒N̥̖͍̲Ǒ̪̞̫̥̯̿ͣͅW̞̮̪̬̳̼̿̋ͅH̗͚̗̘͙͍ͭE̬̘͉̫̳̳̯ͩͯ̌̄͌R̻͎ͨͨ͐͋ͮ̊̍ͅȆ̫̲͔ͫͣ̉ͫ̂ ͎̝̫̞͉̳͂ͬͦ̿Ṫ͕̞̺̜̦̥͒̒̚O̦͖̠̿̋̑̓̐͋ͤ ͉͉̿̑̀̿B͚̭̯̬͖̹͌̇̈́ͬͮ̎E͒ͦ F̓͛̽Ỏ̀̈́Ủ̮̤͚̅͛̎̋ͫN̺͖͕ͮ́̊͌̃̚D̠̬̉  
͊̍͌ͥͨ%̗̦̠͕̻͔̥͊ͩ͗̚$͉̥͚͋̍͒ͥ͒̓̈#͕̻͚̔̐ͬͅ@̞͉̃̓̓!͈̯͖͋̊͊̀ͨͣ)̪͈̘̥͖̮̰̀ͨͩ̈͆ͭ͋(͓̖͔̬̥͒̐͛̚*͈̈́&̮̲̭͖̬͇͒^͙̰͙̖̳͓̗̈̅͊̅̇̚%͚̩͎̻̝̑̄ͅ$̄̊̈́#̹̒͊ͩ̏ͭ͐@̳̗̞̺̗̖͓̒̇ͬ!̫)̮͚͈̝̬(̋*̞ͧͨͮͫ&̱̪̎̌ͣ̌͒̚^ͣ%̦͓̳͖͑̊̊̏̈$̄ͤ̍#̝̖̈́̈̓@ͭ͒ͩ̽̓!̤͇́͑̃̓̈)̺̽͌̑ͭͦ̀̄(͎̲̻͇̺͖̍*̯͉̬̂̾̓͐̉&̟̘͚̮̞̼̹ͦ̎ͬ̊̚^̤̤͍̻̯̿%̱̩̑̄ͣͩ͗$̥̏̇#ͭ̈́̿@̥͇̮̟̻̔͋͊!̖̹̦͕͚͎̻͑͊̓̈́̔͂

* * *

 He was gone, erased. He screamed and screamed, but it didn’t make any noise. He couldn’t remember what his voice sounded like. He looked down at himself and saw nothing. He tried to panic, but couldn’t remember what he did when he was afraid. Didn’t he do something when he panicked? Did he move or stay still? He called out for P̌̏a̛͉̥̪̽ͬͧ̂͗̈̆p̦̙̟͇̟̜̈̊̔͊̂͌͟y̰͔̰̔͞r̤͕ͫ̓͆͒ͫͬ͜ͅṳ̰͒̽̿ͣs͔̳͙̟̀̊̽, his b͉̙ͬ͛ͫͨr̷̷͙̙̜͎̼̹͑͟o̷̢̾҉̲̖̦̯͙͕̘̯t̏ͤ́͌҉͙̫͞h̵͎͖͚̙̱͚̼͔̉̄̃ͪ͌̊ͬ͐͡ḛ̡͙̹̣̝ͭ͆́̈ͪ̈́̓̚r̢̘̭̼̯̀́̅͘, the... the tall one, the skeleton. He called out for F̨̓̊r̫̠ͥ̂ͭ̿̐i̱̱̱̇̉͗ś̡̩̙͚̘ͅk̷͙͔̝͕̅̅̍͊̒͛̚, his f͇̟͎͇͈̗͒ͭ͒̀r̯̫̗͔͓̠̅̄̑̍ͤ̂͝į̺̼̦̤͉̮̦̉̉͢ͅe̡̗̟̳̿͑n̶̘͍̣̙̥̮̾ͭͩ̒͝ͅd̵͇͓̤͇͖̂̅ͧͨ̌̏ͅ. The human? Was that a human? He cried and cried and screamed and cried. But no-one came.  
“Hello. What is your name, little monster?” the nothing asked. Gaster. He remembered Gaster, and he remembered that Gaster knew him. Gaster should know his name.  
“Say it. Introduce yourself to your new friend, Gaster.”  
He tried. He gathered himself, and screamed his name as loud as he could. 

*̦̱͎ͪͧ̌ͮ̔̅͂$͔͓ͫ̂̇ͣͫ̇͊^̤̞̼͙̟̱͐ͦ̏@̥̿̎̒͆̑  
̤̮̣͙̥͔̰S̮̭̫̙̽͊̄ͤÃ̟̱̜̭͉͐ͧ̒̿N͖͚̫̰̪̼̆S̹̙̯̫̲̹͈͊ͪͫ  
̰̳͎̯͖!̹̳̼ͅ#͕̟̹̼̣̮̟͆̑́͐̓̊ͭ*̞ͤ̆$̙͒ͨ̓̀)̯̪̫͇͇͚̗͗ͤͥͬ̆(̙̦̃͋

“Poor little thing.”

*̳̖̯̮̩̰͙͐ͨ$̩̘͓̼͇̈́^͖͘@̙͓̥͈̺͈͚̊ͮ  
̦̳̫͕͔̦͑ͅS̸̪͌͛̆́̓̿Aͧ͆̔N̗̯͎̮͓̮̳͢S̢͇̠̘̹̏̑̾  
!͙̫́͆̍̓#̠̥̭̹̬̏̿̅ͬͅ*ͭ͏͙̥̻͉̹$ͭ̔)̪̟̤̱̫(̹̭̝͇̖̖̾ͦͯ̇ͮ̚ͅ

“So many secrets.”

*̘͙͍̇̀͆ͨ͌ͭ̍͐$̭͕͍̹͙͔̹̭ͨͧͮͤ^̹̯͚͛@̩̹̜̣͇̫̝̋͗̅̽͋  
͚̪̤̝͔̱̻̂̃̊ͭͧ̊S̪̣̟̘͉ͯͭ͒ͪ͛͒̆̇͒A͙͖͌͒ͨN̪̩̰̘̘̂ͩ͂ͫS͇̖̪͓̥̤̭̯͎͊͊  
̭̖͆͆ͬͮͫ̿ͬ̏!̠͓̫͓̬̇͗̋̊̐̾ͮ#͚̞̠͖͇̅ͨ̃̏*̯̙͙̳̹͍̩̺̩ͦͮ̋̾̒͊$͇̞̥̩ͧ̋̄́͒ͤ̐͆ͫ)̩̭̮̳̤̲̩̥ͬ̑ͦͯ(̬̣͉͔͍̩̺̠͇̐

“Keeping so much…”

*̮̺̻̞̔͆̄̈́̕͜͢$̪͇̹͇̤͙̮̎̆ͨ̈́̏͐̓ͥ^̵̲̩̬̪̜ͧ̓̈́̄́́@̣͉̤̺̤̽͒͌̂ͭ  
͓̩͒͌̊̚S̙̣͍̙̘̋ͦ̾̎Ḁ̮͇͛̂͘N̵̍̆̌͛̅͘͏͉S̜̠ͪͭ͂͂͘͟ͅ  
̵̷͉͓̞ͪ͑͂͂́̈̈́̚͢!̲̻͉̱̹͖̤̏̅̿̋ͫ͝ͅ#̺̼̖̠̈́ͦͨ̆ͮ̔*̫̥̦̞̝̙̅̄̆ͯ́͌$̧̮͚̥͍̒ͥͪ͛̋̉)̴̣̯̜͍͕̝̥͈̐̈́(̚̚͟͡͏̙

“….from so many people”

 

*̻̦̳͙̟̫̤͉͙̗̞̪̬͊̑͊̈̽̍̆̒̃͛$͈̭̗̞͍̼̜̙͇̮̱̗̝͕͎̣͓̜ͪ͌͂͊̒̅ͨ^͎̳̬̦̠̾̌̋̇ͨ̓̈́ͨ̅̅ͮͣ͐ͪͥ̈́̐@͙͙̩̯̤ͭ̐͑̽͒͊͐̏̑͑̌ͣ́̚  
̘̝̤͖͍ͯ̀̽͒ͩ̅S̥̲͚̠͕̥̖̫̠̱̼̠̹͓ͬ̉̈ͥ̉̉ͦ͌͂̋̓A̤̭̟̗̹̜̹̼ͬ̑͛̆ͬ͗N̖̣͉̠̹̭̮̱̗̺͓̰̰̦ͦ̃̂̐̐S͇̼̙̮͎̟̲͈͇̖̜̖̬̿̈̈́̐̋ͩ̃̐̃ͭ̂  
̙̼̤̘̝́̔ͪ͆ͤͅͅ!̹̗̗̺͍̖͎ͩ͑ͫ̂ͪ̽ͮ̔̈́ͤ͆̾͒̍̏̃ͅ#̲͎͕̖̹̙͉̼̯̺̞̞̻͚̏̈̃̊ͥ͐ͥ̈́*̮͕͈̮͈̠̪̈̽ͤ̊̿$͎̞̩̣̞͈͉̬̣͔̼̟͎̜͖̫͌̃ͪ̅̍̈́̿̚)̰͚̲̮̦̫̞͖͇͕̳̫͓̪̖͙ͥ̃ͥͪ̃(̖̤̰͙͕̞͙͍̜̻̤̹̣̱̬͓̝͈̜̍̒̂̅ͦͪ̀ͯ̈̃̌͑̚

 

“And now there’s not a single thing for them to hold on to…”

 

*̍ͭ̎̆̾̀́̆̊ͯ͆́͆ͬ̚̚̕҉̷̲͕̣̗̖̝͙͍̗$̦͓̖͈̯̫̯̤̙̮̜͎̥̰̹̪̹ͨͮ͌̍ͤͭͤͫ̊͜͢ͅ^ͨ̌ͭͮ̈ͥͩ҉҉̙̘͉̖̗̭̻̮̥͇̤̜̺̠@̋̉ͫ̇̄͗̋̄ͧ̂̿͂̈́̈́͏̝̙̫̮͔̣͓́͠  
̸͙̫̦̜͎̙̠̻̣̒͐͂̉̆̌ͭͩͩͯ̌̀̀̚͢͞S̶̷̛̜̠̻̙̟̥͉͙̺̦̪̪͇̘̱̘͈͚̐̑̐ͬ̉̎̏̂ͣ̊̍̏́͛́̌͘͜Ǎ̖͓̻̗̗̰̹͍͇̗̗̱̲̠̳̟ͦͭ̐ͯ́ͅṄ̨̝̯͕͚̰̤̣̰̲̭͔̈́ͤ̒̉̽̊̍̂̑̎̐̓ͭ̄̋͢͞ͅͅS̨̺̭͙͖͍̼͙̮͓̤̠͔̯̟̞̠͎͛́̂ͣ̃̊͠  
̂ͣ̂̄̽ͦ̽̂͏̞͉̬̩̮̮̻̰̫͉̟̞̯̤̪͍̖͇͟͡ͅ!̵̧̫͎̼̞͍̼̫̮ͪ͛̅̽̅̀͝#̶̄͗̅͂͛͋̊̔̿̓͏̷̝̞͔͙̺̼͓͖͔͙͘*̷̬̟͖̤ͧ̿ͬ̏̐ͪ̽͌̌̈́̿ͤ͑͑̌̀̚̕͡$̧̙̖̠̗͓̟̭̤͈̜̻̥͕̩͖̳̆̄ͦ̓ͥ̃ͨͭ̐̔̈́́͝ͅ)̴̣̟̤̭̦̺̖͎̬͎͙̦̬̑̂̓͊͗̆͒͋͌̆ͮͥ̅̔̈́̚͟(̺̖͕̼͔̣̰͚̞̰̜̠̣̱͖̣͆̂͐̍ͬ͞

 

“Not a single thing they know about you…”

 

Ḧ̴̴̨̹̩̠͓̫͖̣͍̞͎̹̖̹̱͐͂͛̉Ẽ̆ͥ̇̾͘͜͏͖̲͕̟͕͉̯L̶̝̥̬͚̳̘̦̖̠̞̭͉̅̒̈́̕͝P̷̵͇͍͇̗̦̖̤̖̭̻̌ͩ̐͛̍̚ͅP̸̢̗̼̫̺̩̣͍̾̿̈́͗̀͘͜L̆ͮ̿͊͏̸̛̞̻̜̠̠͕͓̮͇́Ę̸̶͓̥̤̮̭̞͍͉̬̳̤͉̘̘͈̘̯̏̿͐̋͛͆̐̑̈ͨͮ̇̂͛̈́̉͡A̋̏̇̉ͣ͂͌͏̷̶̘͉̣̹͜͡S̛̛̼̫̥͖̼̻̜ͬ̆ͥͩ̓̇̐͐̐͑̑͜͠Ę̴͙̫̗̮̬͎̖̖͖͖̜͖̝͕ͮͧ̑̎ͦͥ̔Hͩ̒ͦ͒ͩ̉͆̽ͭ̎̚҉̪͖̳̫̳̬͎͖̭̣̮U̵̴̦̝̳̙͔̹̜̩̱͍̲̱̦͉̣̲ͤ͌̅̂͗̿͊̌ͧ̃ͧ͊ͨ̚R̨̈ͭͧͦ̑ͧ͋ͭ҉̡̣̘̘̹͙̟̜̟̖̘̣̼̤̹̪͚̟̕T̵͗̓̋͋ͮ̔̾ͣͭ͠͏͓̦̺͔͖̯͕̫̮̖͇̜̯̰̞ͅṢ̢̤̺̖͈͙̙͔̲̦͔͕͍́́̈ͨ̇̒ͥ͂ͩ̍̑ͬ̋̃̚͘͡  
̨̣̪͍̞͓̦̮̤̺̿̒̌̓̓̅ͣ͌͆͑̈́̈́̕͟͢͢ͅS̵̨̳̤͇̦͎̼̤̙̭̟̟̻̙̐͐̇̏̈̌̒ͮ́͊̀̚͡Ã̋̿̑ͫ̇̀ͬͨ̓̉ͬ̋̔͗҉̸̣͔͇̤̕͢N̢̨͉̹͖͉̠͔͖̂̋ͪ̂̃͐̀̈́̀̓ͤͨͩ̚͘S̴̢͚̜̜̩̳̖̯͈̘̞̦͚̈̎̒ͨ͋̑͋̽ͧ̄͗͆͑́̐̂̓͋̚͜ͅS̶̛̰͚̣̣͇̬̥̮̺̗͚̗̭͎̲̤̣̉̑ͨ́ͬ̽ͨ̄̌̔̚͟A͈̼̼̗ͩ͌̉͒ͨ͆͋͌̍ͪͤ͐̒ͭ͜͢Ņ̴̸̷̻͙̥̪̥̝̠̼̘̱̗ͩ͛ͪ͒͛ͣͤ͛̾͒̈ͦͦ̇͑̾͘S̨̛ͪ̽̀͋́̉̌̉̇ͫ̅͐̏̌͊͊́ͭ̏͏͖̻̭̼̫̺̲͉̻͙͝ͅS̨͙̗̙̬̮͎͓̭̳̞̄̏̇̋͐ͦ̃ͦ͊͆͢͞Ą̸̩̝̩̞̬̰̠̥̖̩̬̻̣̹͍̽̌͋ͥ̓̔̉̐̑͜͜Ņ͇̳͇͔͖͙͉͍̻̥̩̙̾̐͂̀ͦ̍͑͐͊̋̂ͤ̂͞͞S̷̗̩̯͇͔͉̫͉̾̌̇̈́͌̕S̖̤̙̟̻̻͔͚͖͎̬ͬ͋͑͂͋͡A̴̴̺̥͙͉͚̝̦̻̞̜͖͎͔̰̮͈ͥ͆̑̇̅͘͟Ṋ̨̭͉̙ͪͨ̾ͬ̿ͯͥ̆͐͐͊̀͟ͅS͖̙̗͖͕̝̯̖͇͓̣̻̫͊̅̈͂͊͗͆ͮ̑ͭ̕͠͡ͅͅͅ  
̢̢̤̯̼̥͔̼͓̰̤ͥ̑ͤ͊ͤ̌̈̋͐́̕͜P̨͇̤̺̦̩̼̹̼̹̟̥̃̓̆̊ͤ̌ͦͪ̃̍̿̆̋ͤͥͨͪ̅͢L̷̙̼̰̼̼̱̥̝̟͛͆ͦ̐̒̐͌̄̍̄ͭͨͭ̎͘E̴̢͎͕̙͖͍͕ͬ͊ͬͦ̓ͧ̽̇̊͊͊ͨͫ͛̽͌̕͠ͅA̼͕̹͙̪̗̘̟͕̳͕͕͇̻̫ͦͨ̏̄̈́͞S̶̸̶̠̖̙̳̭̝͉͕̹͔͈̩̝̗ͪͭͧ̇͊ͬ̉E̸̷̞̫̟̟͉̱̳͖̿ͬ̐͌̚Ȟ̡̢̡̞̭̰̰̳́ͤ̾̈̑̑͆ͤͦͣ̄̀͡͝U̸̪̘͉̖̣̣̳͎̻̹̳̦̩̪̺ͯ̓̋̋̾̏͒͆͑̓̆͟͜R͖͍̝͔͆ͪ̍ͫ̽ͣͨ̐̉͋͋̑̚͟͡T̢̛̞͙̙̞̟̟̫̬̝̮̻̦̙͆̒͌͂ͥ͠͞Ș̨̨͉͓̼̘͇̩̍ͨ̆̓͋̓͂ͧͦͭ͟H̵̨̞̺̗͈͕̝̹̺͙͓̣͓̆ͧ̈̃̅͛͐̒̋̽̎͗́̔͘͡Ḛ̸̵̛͔̪̘̔̆̋̍̃̊͂̽ͤ͒ͧ̅̽́̚̕L̵̖̣̦̥͖̼̼̣̖̖͎͓̲̱͓̖͙͙͋̉ͫͪ̏̎ͨ͌̍̊ͭ̓ͯͭͬP̶̛̦̟̖͙̬̻̾̓̽ͦͫ

 

“… now that you’re gone.”


	5. This Was Going To Happen Eventually (Part 4)

The window in the nothing had closed, and the monster was already forgetting what colors looked like. He was sure that there had been a picture. Something had been wrong with it, right? What was a picture? There was a lingering feeling of fear, even as he forgot how to feel. He had to hold on to fear.  
“So confused.”  
Gaster. There was Gaster. He knew Gaster. Did he trust Gaster? What was trusting?  
“You’re broken. You are a jumble of spare parts. And I am missing parts.”  
There was pain. He had a soul, was a soul, and it was in pain. Something was tearing at what little identity they ( _he_ ) had left. ( _He was scared. He was himself. He was in pain._ )  
“Still not enough. But I cannot show you more.”  
( _He wanted to ask why. He was suspicious and smart. He could read people._ ) He hurt and screamed and hurt. He was being pulled apart, even when there was nothing to pull.

* * *

Papyrus listened at Frisk’s door to check that they were really going to sleep. He could hear them shuffling around for a while, but that was normal. Once they were done with whatever they were hiding from him, he could hear them go back to bed. It would be alright to leave them for a while. He stretched and made his way downstairs to the basement to see the damage. Unlike everything else in the Underground, the machine wasn’t affected by Frisk’s time shenanigans. It was leaking determination again, which happened whenever Frisk did something too tricky with it. The ‘exploding’ thing was new, though. Making sure not to go near anything that even looked like determination, Papyrus picked through the rubble and cleaned what he could. The human had been stressed lately, so he did what he could to make their job easier. But he didn’t like going down to the lab. It made him uncomfortable the same way the lab underneath Alphys’ house did. He glanced at the machine out of the corner of his eye.  
The second he looked at it, he was filled with dread. It wasn’t the usual discomfort that always seemed to be focused on the machine. The fear seemed to actually grip his soul and hold him in place. He needed to scream, but he didn’t know the words. He dropped everything and ran upstairs.  
“W-WHAT...?” He was already starting to forget why he had run. There were orange flashes on the snow, reflecting as his eyes flickered weakly. He steadied himself against the wall and held the right side of his skull in a way that seemed oddly familiar. The last time he had felt that strange familiarity was when Frisk had first given him his memories back. Was he forgetting something?  
(Yes.)  
Papyrus was surprised by the certainty of that thought. It didn’t seem like his own. (Wasn’t it?)  
“NO... I DON’T THINK IT IS,” he said wondering if whatever it was could hear him (it could, and would speak properly if he let them). “... ALRIGHT.” For a second his bones all went numb, and then Papyrus was surprised to find his jaw moving on its own.  
“Ah. It’s been too long since I could actually talk. Actually, it’s been a while since ‘I’ was ‘myself’.” Papyrus felt the sudden urge to pace, just to feel himself move. “Do you mind if I move around for just a moment?”  
“UM. I WOULD PREFER IF YOU EXPLAINED THINGS FIRST?” Papyrus asked, relived that he could still talk. The urge to move died down somewhat.  
“Well... I am equally confused, actually.”  
“THEN PERHAPS WE COULD START WITH WHO YOU ARE?”  
“This will sound strange, but... I am the Great Papyrus!”  
“NOW I AM MORE CONFUSED. THIS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING I SHOULD BE ASKING THE HUMAN ABOUT.”  
The suggestion caused a tiny echo of apprehension. “Yes, your human. That is a good idea.” The other him probably needed some time to adjust to the idea of talking to Frisk. For what little Papyrus could see from his other self’s memories, they had come from a timeline where the human had been Chara.  
“THE HUMAN NEEDS THEIR REST AT THE MOMENT, SO WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THEM TO WAKE UP. IN THE MEANTIME, WE COULD BUILD SNOWMEN?”  
The joy and gratitude from his other self was worth giving up control of his limbs for a while.

* * *

 The pain had stopped. The monster was left in nothing, wondering what made them different from it.  
“The soul.”  
Gaster knew things. Gaster had to be correct.  
“My soul.”  
Had they stolen it from Gaster? But Gaster was their friend. Should they... They should... re... turn... it?

* * *

Frisk woke up, surprised at how much they had needed to sleep. They were a lot more focused and ready to get back to work. Of course, they would have to thank Papyrus first. They got changed into one of their warmer striped shirts and headed outside, and was stunned at the amount of snowmen that filled the front yard. That was new. Most of the snowmen looked like Papyrus, but some were a little off, like they had been rushed. They were almost right, but were just a little too round.  
“Pap, are you there?” Frisk called. Papyrus’ head stuck out from somewhere around the middle of the crowd. He looked nervous, but after a second he smiled.  
“HUMAN! YOU ARE AWAKE!” he said, trying to bound toward them. He had to stop to weave his way around the snowmen without knocking any over. “BEFORE YOU GO BACK TO THE LAB, MAY WE TALK?”  
“Can’t we talk while I work?” Frisk asked. They really did want to talk to Papyrus, but they had been away from their work for too long. They actually couldn’t remember what they were working on before the explosion. Still, Papyrus looked uncomfortable with the thought of going down to the lab.  
“We should talk in the house,” Papyrus said. Something about his voice was different, but Frisk couldn’t pin down what. It may have been more... subdued? Whatever it was, it was strange enough to put them on edge.  
“Okay, Pap,” they said, stepping aside and gesturing for Papyrus to go inside first. Until they knew what was happening, they wouldn’t turn their back on him for a second. As they walked in, Papyrus was muttering to himself. Of course, Frisk could hear every word.  
“YOU PROMISED TO WAIT UNTIL I HAD TOLD THEM. But I couldn’t let us go back down there. I SUPPOSE... IT WASN’T PLEASANT LAST TIME, WAS IT? From what I can remember, no.” He sat nervously on the couch, and Frisk stayed standing. “HUMAN. SOMETHING STRANGE HAS HAPPENED. THE, UM... THERE WAS A... WHEN WE FOUGHT CHARA...” Frisk struggled to stay still and look calm. They had to let Papyrus finish, if he ever figured out how to get started. He stared down at his hands for a moment before seeming to come to a decision. “Human. I am the Papyrus from Chara’s timeline. Until recently, I had only been a part of this Papyrus, but something has separated us somehow. Fear not! Your Papyrus is still here!”  
_Okay. Okay, that is a thing that has happened,_ Frisk thought, taking a deep breath and holding it. They studied Papyrus as they exhaled. He seemed to be talking to his other self in his head. If they looked, they could see which one was ‘speaking’ based on miniscule changes in his posture. “So... Ugh, there’s no easy way to ask this. Pa- um, the Papyrus from Chara’s timeline. You’ve seen a version of me do terrible things. You’re not... You don’t want to kill me for that, do you?”  
“WHAT? WHY WOULD ANY ME WANT TO KILL YOU?” That was their Papyrus. It was easy to tell them apart as long as they paid attention. Their Papyrus sat straight as an arrow with his shoulders back, but the other one slouched the tiniest bit.  
“I was asking the other Papyrus, Pap.”  
“No, I don’t want to kill you. I didn’t want to kill anyone. I was... prepared... to kill Chara, but that is all,” he answered.  
“Well, that’s one good thing. I wonder why I thought you would... Jeez, I’m tired again, already.” Frisk sighed. “We need to figure out what split you two up then.”  
“OH, HUMAN! WE HAVE DECIDED ON NAMES SO THAT WE MAY TELL EACH OTHER APART IN CONVERSATIONS! ‘Papyrus from Chara’s timeline’ seems too long. SO FOR NOW, I WILL BE ‘THE GREAT PAPYRUS’, AND THE OTHER ME WILL BE ‘THE COOL PAPYRUS’!”  
“That’s a great idea,” Frisk said, sitting on the couch next to them. “Alright. Let’s just... start from the start. When was it that you two first noticed being split up?”  
“THAT WOULD BE JUST BEFORE THE RESET. I WAS NOT TAKING YOUR... DEATH... WELL. That was when I first manage to speak with the Great Papyrus as myself. I tried to comfort him. It was good that I had learned about your LOADING from him, or would not have known what to say.”  
“So one of you was distressed, and the other was calm?”  
“I THINK SO.”  
“Hm... This is just a guess, so tell me if anything sounds off. Since Cool Papyrus was so used to death, sorry about bringing that up, it affected him less than it did Great Pap. Your reactions were so different from each other’s that it sort of ‘reminded’ your souls that you were meant to have separate thoughts.”  
“That seems right.”  
“But this morning, were you still separate? It didn’t seem like it.”  
“NO, WE WEREN’T. IT STARTED AGAIN WHEN I... WHEN I LOOKED AT THE MACHINE, I THINK? I don’t remember much, but I do know we were both very afraid then, no conflicting reactions at all.”  
“Well there goes that theory. Unless there was something about the machine that served as a different sort of ‘reminder’. Can you remember _why_ you two were so afraid?” Papyrus shook his head. “Right then. Since it’s the only lead we have, I suppose we’ll just have to bring you to the machine and see what happens.” One of the Papyrus-es whimpered. “Hey. I promise, if it looks like something bad is going to happen, I’ll get you out of there right away.” With a smile, they took his hand and slowly led him down to the basement.

Papyrus wasn’t sure about going back down there. The uneasiness had started the second his foot hit the first step. He expected it to grow as they descended, but it stayed at the level he usually felt in the lab (because he hadn’t looked at the machine again yet). He closed his eyes before they reached the bottom.  
“Pap...” Frisk said. “You’re going to have to open your eyes. Don’t worry. I’m right here with you.”  
“OKAY,” he said, reluctantly peeking at the machine. He waited for the fear to hit him again, but instead he felt empty. Lost. Confused. And then... angry. Really, really angry. _Bloodthirsty_.  
He pulled himself away and forced himself to run up the stairs, away from the human. That wasn’t him, he never wanted to hurt anyone. It wasn’t his thoughts, it couldn’t be.  
“Papyrus?” Frisk yelled after him. As he ran, he remembered.  
He had a brother.

* * *

( **NO!** )  
Something was holding the monster in the darkness. Something didn’t want to let go. It was angry when they tried. But they were so tired.  
“I can give you rest.”  
Gaster was so nice to them. They needed rest. Something about wanting to rest felt familiar.  
( _$̨ͯ̔̉̾̿̽ͩ@̉̒͊̉͢|ͦ̀\̧ͪ|̵͊$ͮ̏̆ had to hold on to that familiarity, but he couldn’t sleep. If he stopped, the other him would die too._ )  
“You will tire as well. I can wait.”  
The pain in their soul started again. It was less sharp this time. Just a dull ache, but it was growing. It would be unbearable soon, and they would do anything to make it stop.  
“You would do anything, give up anything, to stop this pain. To rest.”  
They would. They were tired. They didn’t want the thing to keep him there.  
( _Stopping just wasn’t an option anymore. He had too much determi-_ )  
They silenced the thing. They didn’t want to keep going. Giving up was easy. Natural. It felt like they had wanted to give up for a long time. Why didn’t they give up before? They tried to writhe as the pain grew, but they weren’t sure what writhing was. The pain was everything in the vast nothing, and they couldn’t remember when there hadn’t been pain, couldn’t comprehend a moment that wasn’t the one they were in right then.  
And then it was gone replaced by fear and confusion, as well as a single, burning thought: _He had a brother_.

* * *

How had he forgotten Sans? Papyrus paced and rubbed the right side of his skull. They were both things Sans did when he was nervous.  
“Papyrus, what happened? Was it the fear again?” Frisk asked as they reached the outside.  
Papyrus didn’t stop pacing. “No, he was angry this time, not scared. What happened to him?”  
“Pap, look at me! Tell me what’s wrong!”  
He turned and walked toward Frisk, grabbing them by the shoulders gently. Even as confused and scared as he was, he didn’t want to hurt them. “HUMAN, DO YOU REMEMBER A SKELETON NAMED SANS?”  
“No, I don’t. Papyrus, what happened?” the human asked, stepping out of his grip. He didn’t have time to tell them everything, but he filled them in on the crucial parts. “Oh, wow. Okay. Not the craziest thing I’ve decided to accept in my lifetime. Or, lifetimes. So... Cool Papyrus has a part of Sans’ ‘essence’ living on inside him because of the monster funeral. That, combined with the partial temporal immunity the machine has, seems to have given back your memories of Sans. I’m not sure what took those memories, but apparently it entered our timeline and couldn’t be detected by the machine. That means it doesn’t technically exist. Not properly, anyway. If Sans’ soul was shattered and patched together the way you described, then the LOAD may have given it an opportunity to pull him out of reality forward and backward.”  
“SO HE’S OUTSIDE OF REALITY?”  
“Probably. But that little bit of his essence in you would be an anchor. If you’re still getting emotional feedback, then he still exists in some sense. All we need to do is figure out how to get him back and everything should simply snap back into place.”

* * *

The monster remembered Papyrus. His brother, the only thing really worth remembering in a mess of people and places, looped and tangled. He remembered how brave and selfless he was. He remembered how strong and kind he was. He remembered the tall skeleton falling, his head tumbling into the snow, and then waking up to his hugs, comforting him and his voice telling him it would be alright.  
His brother was a skeleton, so he had to be one too, right? That made sense. He looked down and could see the faint outline of a stocky set of bones. His body. That was what he looked like. He held his clenched fists against his eye sockets to try to remember what it felt like. As he tried to recall, he felt other memories slipping away. He stopped searching for memories and desperately held on to the ones he had. There was nothing more he could do. He just had to keep what he had and trust that Papyrus would save him.

* * *

They were back down in the lab. Occasionally, Papyrus would glance at the machine to check on Sans. The first time he did there was a sense of victoriousness, but that was slowly fading. Still, every time after there was a sense of unwavering trust. Sans would be safe for a while, but they still had to think of a way to reach him. Frisk was busy trying to reconstruct something from the pieces that had already fallen off the machine, unwilling to tamper with their only link to Sans quite yet. Papyrus watched for a while, but he didn’t know enough about any of the parts to even guess what they were doing.  
He checked on Sans again. There was still that trust. Papyrus didn’t know if it would work, but he closed his eyes and thought, _SANS, BROTHER, NEVER FEAR! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, and I, the Cool Papyrus, ARE GOING TO FINDYOU! NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES, WE WILL RESCUE YOU!_ He didn’t think it had worked until he felt a wave of relief wash over him from Sans.  
“Done!” said Frisk, holding up what they had been working on.  
“ IT LOOKS LIKE A BELT,” he said, walking over.  
“It is a belt, but it’s what it _does_ that’s important. The metal from this machine is soaked through with determination. I was worried, at first, that it had gained some sort of sentience like... the last soulless thing to gain determination. Turns out, without monster dust added to the mix, it just gains some temporal immunity.” Later, Papyrus would have to ask about ‘the last soulless thing’. “This belt is built out of those parts. If it works correctly then it should create a bubble of temporal immunity. But the longer it’s on, the more determination it uses. We don’t exactly have an unlimited supply, so only use it when you really need it.”  
“ ALRIGHT,” he said, taking the belt. It was much too big for him, so he had to hang it over his shoulder.  
“And now we just need to get you to him.”


	6. This Was Going To Happen Eventually (Part 5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright! A bit of backstory for Gaster here! Of course, I completely retconned this backstory later, but I'm going to leave the original, unedited version here. If/when I turn this into a comic, it will all go the same, but I will replace the backstory given here with the one I re-wrote.  
> Also, later, I will post the re-written backstory, since I'll be posting some more one-shots after the Flowey arc I'm stuck on (I'm writing this as I go back and edit these chapters)

The monster remembered breathing. He had been keeping track of time by counting each breath. After fifty-four million seven hundred and fifty thousand breaths, or at least eleven, he couldn’t tell, something in the nothingness wrinkled. Dimly lit solid ground appeared beneath him, and he fell onto it with a thump.  
“-LOOKS REALLY WEIRD,” Papyrus said as he appeared next to him. “OH! SANS! IT WORKED!” Sans. Was that his name? It seemed familiar. He tried to talk to Papyrus, but he still couldn’t remember his voice. Papyrus pulled him into a hug, and Sans could actually feel it! It was the first thing he had felt in a while.  
“Finally,” Gaster said, appearing. All Sans could see of him was a pale, cracked face and thin hands, towering above the brothers. Sans realized, he did know Gaster! Gaster had _hurt Pap_. He pulled himself out of Papyrus’ grip and tried to move forward, but Papyrus put a hand on his shoulder and stepped in front of him. Whether he was shielding Sans from Gaster or Gaster from Sans was unclear.  
“ EXCUSE ME. I AM GOING TO TAKE MY BROTHER BACK NOW.”  
Gaster laughed, and the nothing seemed to swirl around them. “You were always the naive one. I’m not going to give either of you back. Not after we waited so patiently for you to arrive.” He rubbed his hands together. It looked like spiders trying to eat each other. “I need your help, little skeleton.”  
Papyrus looked like he was actually considering helping that maniac for second before his posture shifted. “I really want to help, but first I must get Sans to safety.”  
“That really is too bad,” Gaster sighed. Without any warning, Gaster’s hands shot out like an arrow straight at Papyrus’ soul. Sans cried out silently, but before it could hit a solid wall of snow appeared in front of them.  
Papyrus stepped back with an audible sigh of relief and turned to Sans. “WE SHOULD LEAVE BEFORE... UM... W-WHERE DID THE SHORTCUT GO?”  
The snow wall cracked and an inky darkness oozed through. White streaks in the oily substance started to gather back into Gaster’s face. “You’ve already begun to manipulate this space on pure instinct. Impressive.” So Gaster wasn’t the only one that could control things? “I should have included you in everything so much sooner. Perhaps you could have prevented all of this...” Papyrus faltered, stepping forward to comfort Gaster.  
“WORRY NOT, STRANGE, SLUDGY MONSTER! ONCE I HAVE RESCUED SANS I WILL RETURN TO SEE WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU!” he said with a smile and arms wide open. Gaster stopped and the nothingness pulled back as if shocked at Papyrus’ kindness.  
“Oh... Pap... You can rescue me right now,” Gaster replied. Before anyone could move, spears of nothing shot out from all angles directly into Papyrus’ soul, lifting him up off the ground.  
“pa... _papyrus_!” Sans screamed, finding his voice just too late. More spears rose up, caging him off from his brother.  
“ Are you saying you don’t recognise me?” Gaster said. As he moved closer, layers of nothing peeled off from him. He was taller and more angular, but the face was unmistakably Sans’. “It’s me, Pap. It’s Sans. Not the Sans you know, but still your brother.” Sans, the real one, tried to find a way through the spears. Every time he tried to grab them his hands went numb and blurry. “In my timeline I was the royal scientist before Alphys. When I first tested my time machine, the one you so cleverly used to reach me, it tore me apart and sent the broken pieces here. I had to pull myself back together slowly, painfully. But I was missing parts. I had to find them elsewhere, but I had been ripped from every timeline I could access.” Sans had to stop Gaster. If Papyrus could change this space, then Sans could too. He just had to figure out how. “After searching so long, being forced back by the other erased so many times, I finally found a timeline where I exist. So I wound my way in through rumours and lost memories... A N D S T O L E M Y O W N S O U L. But it shattered, and I could only take pieces. So I did it again. And again. And again. Until I could finally force myself into this form.” The nothing _wanted_ to exist. He just had to give it a shape to exist in. Something important to him. “ But each time I stole shards of my soul, it became harder to fit them together. I can only stay ‘myself’ here. And then I saw this little timeline. Almost two Sans-es, almost two Papyrus-es. Enough that they could find this place and stay whole. If I can take those souls, they will fill in the cracks in mine. I will be truly whole again.”  
Rain. He remembered how much he wanted to see rain. It fell, stabbing straight through the nothing and washing harmlessly over his brother, who only just managed to stay on his feet as he was dropped to the floor. Gaster hissed and retreated into the nothingness around them to avoid the burning rain. Sans pushed his way through a hole in the spears and ran to Papyrus.  
“pap, bro, pap, are you-” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of those spears rushing toward him, quickly blocked by another wall of snow. Papyrus gave him a weak thumbs up. More spears rushed toward them, slower and weaker because of the rain. Papyrus managed to block some of them, but Sans had to tackle Papyrus to the ground to help him dodge the others. They scrambled to their feet and ran, reaching the edge of their little platform of solid ground in seconds. “oh god, what do we do? we are so, so dead...” The rain petered out as he panicked, and Gaster started to slink toward the brothers.  
“SANS! SANS, PLEASE, YOU NEED TO FOCUS! C-COME ON SANS!” Papyrus said, backing as far away from Gaster as he could. But Sans had remembered his panic attacks, and they had been added back into his identity at the worst possible moment. “OH NO. NO, NO, NO...” Papyrus focused and made a snow fort around them for protection.  
“we’re dead, we’re dead, no-one’s even gonna remember us, bro, we won’t have even existed! we just... we can’t...” He didn’t need to breathe, but he still desperately tried and failed.  
“SANS, LOOK AT ME,” Papyrus said, kneeling in front of him. “LET’S JUST BREATHE. READY? IN... OUT... IN... OUT...” Sans followed Papyrus’ instructions, following a routine they had both been through a hundred times before. The walls of the snow fort shuddered, and Sans’ eyes snapped toward a small crack that started to form. “DON’T LOOK AT THAT, LOOK AT ME, LISTEN TO MY VOICE. KEEP BREATHING. IN... OUT... IN... OUT...” He didn’t know how long it took for Papyrus to calm him down, but by the time he was able to look again there were a lot more cracks in the fort. Papyrus waited for a second, making sure Sans was ready to start moving again, before saying, “I HAVE AN IDEA. I THINK WE SHOULD FUSE!”  
“y-yeah?” Sans said.  
“YEAH,” he replied, holding out a hand and reaching out with his soul. Shaking slightly, Sans took his hand. It was warm, full of his soul’s love. For a moment, Sans wondered what Papyrus would think of his LOVE, but that warmth from Papyrus comforted him. Everything around them started to fade as they began the fusion.

The snow fort crumbled almost as soon as he stopped paying attention to it, but Comic Papyrus had been ready for that. He flipped out of the way of the spears of darkness, watching them pass right through the ground where he had been kneeling.  
Gaster laughed, spears flying in time with each chuckle. “Ah. You are now a single target. How fortunate for me!”  
Comic Papyrus didn’t reply. He was busy blocking and dodging. The snow walls came easily and quickly, but they didn’t have much use outside of a one-time shield. The rain was a weapon, but he had to think it through more. He remembered how it felt against his skull, which started a tiny drizzle, just enough to make Gaster hesitate. Comic Papyrus used that time to reach into the dimensional box and pull out his weapon, a giant bone nearly as tall as himself, burning orange on one end and blue on the other.  
Gaster returned with renewed ferocity, actually charging at Comic Papyrus along with the spears. Seeing an opportunity, Comic Papyrus weaved through the spears and slammed his bone right through Gaster’s face, shattering it. Of course it didn’t kill him, Comic Papyrus probably wouldn’t have been able to do it if he thought it would, but it did create a large hole in the mass that made up Gaster. Comic Papyrus leapt through, rolling as he hit the ground and running back toward where Papyrus had made the shortcut.  
Gaster hissed in pain as he reformed. His face was back to that flat, pale thing instead of looking like Sans, which was a relief. Although, like Sans, it still managed to look incredibly angry even when smiling. The hissing grew and suddenly the floor fell out from under Comic Papyrus. He dropped, and only just managed to catch the sides of the hole with his bone. His arms almost fell off from the jolt. He hung precariously over the gap, staring into the nothingness below. After a short pause he started to pull himself up. Gaster appeared at the edge on the hole.  
“Don’t worry. Once I am whole we can leave together, as one.”  
An oily darkness leaked down and started dripping onto Comic Papyrus’ arms. They started to go numb. He didn’t know how long he could hold on. Part of him felt like just giving up and falling, but another part had to survive. He had to, because he _could_. That determination flickered in his chest, giving him strength. He let one of his hands slip from the bone, trying to drown out Gaster’s triumphant laugh. It fell to his side, and he had to force it, one agonizing second after the other, back up to his chest. The belt Frisk had given Papyrus was hanging over his shoulder. Shakily, he activated it.  
There was a flash of bright red and searing heat. When Comic Papyrus could see again, that oily substance was gone. More spears and a wave of darkness rushed toward him and were absorbed by the red bubble that surrounded him. Judging by the unhealthy-looking black veins that started forming on the surface after that attack, the bubble wouldn’t hold for long. He looked around for something he could use to fight or run.  
There! Down below him, the smallest twinkle of real light from the Underground. He had found the shortcut! But it was far too small for him to fit through. There was only one thing to do. It almost split him apart, but he managed to reach into Sans’ dimensional box and pull out a Gaster Blaster.  
“ Do you really think that will work on me here?” Gaster asked.  
“No,” Comic Papyrus answered, “but it’s not for you.” The blaster finished charging and fired, directly into the shortcut. The blast tore it open.  
“You can’t leave without an anchor,” Gaster laughed. “As soon as Papyrus entered this place, both he and Sans were trapped here forever.”  
Comic Papyrus grinned and let go of the bone. As he fell, he pulled off his left glove and showed Gaster his hand. His ring finger was missing. “I think I have a _hand_ le on the situation.” He laughed, even as he cursed himself for the pun.

Frisk was waiting nervously in their room, turning Papyrus’ finger over in their hands. It had been a little weird to be holding it at first, but as the minutes turned to hours they had taken comfort in it. Surely, if he was dead, it would have turned to dust, right? They glanced over at the makeshift dimensional hopper that sat in the corner. It was the machine, half-rebuilt over the shortcut in their room. Frisk had learned a bit of human magic, which involved a lot of drawing specific symbols and _willing_ for things to happen, so that had been added to keep it stable. When they thought about it, they couldn’t remember why they knew that magic, so the reason probably had to do with that Sans guy.  
A loud buzzing sounded around machine, and Fisk leapt up off the ground, unsure if they should be running toward or away from it. They felt a wrenching on their soul, not unlike when they were pulled around by blue magic, and suddenly everything fell into place. They remembered Sans! The lazy, lovable, scary, friendly, skeleton they had loved and fought with. He had been with them and Papyrus when they had gone to fight Chara. He had been in trouble, and they had tried to find out what was wrong, but their efforts had only lead to a LOAD.  
The buzzing... it wasn’t the machine, it was something in it. That was the sound of a Gaster Blaster charging. They flung themself to the side just in time to dodge a huge beam of light coming from the machine. A tall skeleton tumbled through the hole in the machine. He was taller than Papyrus, and had his cape. Was it some other version of him? Frisk was way out of their depth on this one.  
“ Frisk!” he said, walking toward them and scooping them up the way Papyrus usually did.  
“H-Hi there! Um, who are you?” they asked. He looked confused for a second.  
“Oh! Yeah, you wouldn't know me in this form, would you?” the skeleton said. “I'm Sans and Papyrus! Didn't they tell you they could fuse?”  
“Oh wow, no, they didn’t. That’s really you two?”  
“O-of course! They call me ‘Comic Papyrus’, which I think is quite a good name, don’t you?” Comic Papyrus said, spinning them around and hugging them. Frisk was about to agree, but he cut them off. "Nyeheh, I'm just so happy to see you!”  
“Ow, ow, hey, I need to breathe!” Frisk gasped. Comic Papyrus gave a start and put them down. After a few gulps of air, Frisk looked back up at him. “Comic Papyrus? You’re a... fusion, then?”  
“Yes! It’s a skeleton thing! The process is pretty simple, once you know how!” he explained. It was strange to hear explanations like that said in a voice as excitable as Papyrus’.  
“So, are you like that for good now?”  
Comic Papyrus shook his head and looked guilty. “No. Actually, I should have un-fused by now. But before I do I wanted to check on Sans and Papyrus’ souls. They’ve been through a lot recently.”  
Frisk smiled. They could hear how much Comic Papyrus cared for the brothers, reflecting exactly how much they cared about each other. Then something occurred to them. “Wait, when they un-fuse, what happens to you?”  
He paused. “I’ve... never really thought about it. I guess I just... stop existing until they fuse again?”  
“That’s... terrible!” Frisk said, tearing up a little. “I mean, I want Sans and Papyrus back but... not at your expense.”  
“Aw. Come on, kid. You just met me. Surely you want to hang out with them more than me, right? I mean, I’m not really a person anyway. I’m more like where their souls overlap,” he said, sitting down and hugging them. Gently, this time.  
“Th-Then why do you re-refer to yourself as a different per-person than them?” Frisk asked, hiccupping the way they always did when they cried.  
Comic Papyrus patted Frisk’s head comfortingly. “It’s just easier that way, you know? Talking like I’m the both of them all the time gets confusing. Really, there’s nothing to worry about.”  
“P-Promise?”  
“I don’t really like making promises. It’s a Sans thing. But I can tell you that I’d never do anything to upset you. Those two love you too much for that.” Frisk didn’t miss the fact that he avoided the question. They crossed their arms and stared. “Alright, alright! I promise that you don’t have to worry about me. Better?” Frisk nodded. “Cool. Hey, could you give me a minute? I really should check on their souls. Maybe go make yourself some food? You look really worn out. Pap and Sans’ll be down in a minute.”  
“Okay,” Frisk answered, wriggling out of his arms and going to the door.  
Before they could leave, Comic Papyrus said, “But... if you could convince them... every once in a while to maybe fuse? For just a bit?” Frisk gave a huge thumbs up before making their way downstairs.

Comic Papyrus didn’t like lying to the human. Even if nothing he said was technically a lie. He _was_ just where Sans and Papyrus’ souls overlapped when they fused. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have his own thoughts and experiences, even if those thoughts were greatly influenced by what those two felt and those reactions were immediately shared with them. He hadn’t ever really thought about what happened to him when they un-fused. The thought of simply not existing was scary, especially considering what had just happened. But one of the kid’s points stood in reverse too. He wasn’t willing to exist at the expense of Sans and Papyrus. Eventually the fusion would fall apart on its own anyway, due to a disagreement between the two, or them running out of magic.  
He lay down on the floor and stretched out as far as he could, taking a moment to just feel the movement. He totally got where Cool Papyrus was coming from before. Still, he had a job to do. Closing his eyes and shutting out the world, he reached inside and slightly separated the souls. Not enough to un-fuse, but enough so that he could look at them individually.  
Papyrus’ was healthy enough. A full soul, no LOVE to speak of, barely any EXP. Even the parts of Cool Papyrus embedded in his soul were content, after all he had been through. What worries he had, he already had decided to work through them. That was good. Last time Comic Papyrus had looked, Papyrus was choosing to ignore his problems.  
Sans’ soul was another story. It really was shattered, like everyone said. If the other Sans, who was completely crazy, hadn’t held his soul together, he probably would have died. Sans was trying to leave all of his problems behind him. It was a step in the right direction, but Comic Papyrus really hoped that Papyrus would try to help him face them someday, when he was ready. The recent ordeal hadn’t helped at all. It was holding on mostly through the determination of the crazy Sans. Comic Papyrus gently pushed against it, trying to mould it back into shape. It was better once he was done, but would still need time to heal. At least it wouldn’t have to rely entirely on the crazy Sans’ determination. That would have been a recipe for disaster.  
He had stalled long enough. Really, he was pretty proud that he had managed to keep it together for Frisk. The thought of un-fusing and ceasing to exist was freaking him out a lot. It was a wonder that he had only slipped up at the end of their conversation. With a quiet sigh, he let himself fall apart.

Sans woke up, lying on the floor. It always took a second for him to remember what they had done when they were fused. Still, he felt really good. A part of him knew that it was mostly because of the high he got when he was running out of magic, but this time he really was happy. They had gotten back to the real world!  
Papyrus, lying next to him, blinked awake a few seconds after Sans did, smiling sleepily. It was weird how magic deprivation made Papyrus tired and Sans alive with energy.  
“bro? did we... i think we got out,” Sans said, taking a deep breath of real air. It felt great.  
“YES! I WAS SURE WE COULD DO IT!” Papyrus said quietly. He punched the air in victory before letting his fist fall back to the ground.  
“that reminds me. don’t you need to get your finger back from frisk?” Papyrus waved and mumbled something indistinctly. “we did promise we’d see them in a minute, right?”  
Pap murmured something that sounded like confirmation. Sans helped him up and they both made their way downstairs. It felt like forever since Sans had seen Frisk. They were just serving three plates of spaghetti when Sans and Papyrus got down there. Frisk smiled and ran to them, almost knocking them over with a hug.  
“hey there kid. sorry to worry you. i take it you were pretty _alfredo_ for me, ” he said. Frisk chuckled. Papyrus groaned and tried to pull away, but the human’s grip was surprisingly strong. “looks like we’re stuck, bro. we’ll have to find a way to _pasta_ the time. ” Pap struggled more. “hey, don’t get angry _fusilli_ reasons!” Papyrus finally broke free and started to march upstairs.  
“Don’t you want your spaghetti?” Frisk called after him. He stopped halfway up the stairs and turned.  
“ ONLY IF YOU PROMISE TO STOP THE PUNS!”  
“Of course!” they said, and then whispered to Sans, “If we don’t stop now, it may _spirali_ out of control.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I have to make something cute after this. NO MORE SADNESS (at least, for the next chapter. And maybe it'll be a little sad. BUT NOT ALL PLOT-HEAVY)!
> 
> Also, in my head, Comic Papyrus looks like the one by 7goodangel (http://7goodangel.deviantart.com/art/Another-Comic-Papyrus-577278833) except with Pap's gloves.


	7. Downtime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, a chapter that justifies the use of the 'fluff' tag! This takes place a day or two after 'This Was Going To Happen Eventually'.

People had been visiting a lot more often since Sans returned. Undyne and Alphys would drop by every few days, and even Toriel ventured out of the ruins to share a meal at the skeleton brothers' house. When they first came, Papyrus had to let them know that Sans couldn’t remember the days before the Gaster incident. He had to phrase it strangely to keep from mentioning Gaster directly.  
“THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT, AND I AM AFRAID SANS HAS LOST SOME OF HIS MEMORIES OF THE LAST FEW DAYS,” he had told them. They didn’t ask for any further explanation. Alphys seemed very suspicious when Papyrus said ‘accident’, but didn’t question it. She and Undyne were there for dinner, which Frisk insisted on preparing ‘so Undyne and Papyrus could take a break’. The kid was a pretty good cook. They had probably gotten some tips from Toriel.  
Once everything was prepared, they all sat down around the TV to watch Mettaton. Papyrus and Alphys were completely absorbed in it, so they didn’t hear Sans, Frisk, and Undyne cracking jokes about the show. It was late when they finally finished chatting, so Papyrus offered to let Alphys and Undyne sleep on the couch for the night. Alphys blushed and agreed, a little too quickly and with a little too much stuttering, but Undyne didn’t seem to like the idea until Frisk mentioned they had removed the lumps from it.  
“Ngahhh... I guess...” she said.  
“A-and tomorrow, m-maybe you c-could come to the d-dump with me?” she asked hopefully. “It’s been a while, w-we might find more human history b-books down there!”  
“Man, I wish I could, but I’ve got a training session with the Snowdin Canine Unit tomorrow.”  
“I WILL ALSO BE THERE, SPECTATING! IF I’M GOOD, UNDYNE WILL TEACH ME HOW TO SUPLEX A BOULDER!” Papyrus chipped in.  
“i’ll tag along, al,” Sans said. Everyone spun around and looked at him weirdly. “what? i need some spare parts.”  
Alphys smiled weakly. “Y-yeah, okay. G-going to... t-to the dump with S-Sans.”

Sans had been rummaging through the junkyard with Alphys for a while when he came across the mirror. It was slightly cracked, but still in pretty good shape. He had seen his reflection in a couple of things, like the water or some glass shards in the piles, but those had all given warped and distorted reflections that he tried not to look at. They reminded him of Gaster. God, all the other versions of him _were_ crazy. Still, when he saw the full-length, bronze-rimmed mirror he had stopped in his tracks and stared. Seeing his reflection, even if his always half-closed right eye and frozen grin did put him off a little, he was comforted. The grin settled into a more natural and honest smile. Despite everything, it was still him.

Sans was standing in front of the mirror again. He had just finished dragging it all the way back to his and Pap’s room. Papyrus, who had just returned from watching Undyne, commented loudly on how much he liked it as he helped Sans carry it upstairs. Frisk offered to help too, but there wasn’t enough room for all three of them on the stairs. Instead, they sat on the second story, swinging their legs over the side. The lower wall was starting to get scuff marks from how often they sat like that.  
“OH SAAAAANS!” Papyrus called, opening the door. He was excited enough that he didn’t knock. “IT IS TIME FOR LUNCH!”  
“spaghetti again?” Sans asked, turning away from the mirror.  
“ACTUALLY, IN CELEBRATION OF YOUR RETURN, I THOUGHT THAT PERHAPS WE WOULD GO TO GRILLBY’S,” Papyrus answered, grumbling the last few words. Sans vaguely remembered trying to avoid Grillby’s in the days before the Gaster incident, but he couldn’t think why.  
“sounds good.” Soon he and Papyrus were all headed to Grillby’s. Chuckling a little, Sans lead them through a shortcut that took the straight there.  
“SANS! YOU LAZYBONES! WE LIVE _LITERALLY_ RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM HERE! HASN’T UNDYNE’S TRAINING GIVEN YOU _ANY_ STAMINA? ” Papyrus yelled, stomping in the snow. Undyne _had_ been trying to train Sans for some reason, but he always managed to find a way to get through without working very hard.  
“ heheh, ‘lazy’ is just another word for ‘efficient’,” he said with a shrug, effectively dodging the question about Undyne’s training.  
He was expecting a greeting when he walked through, the door, but he wasn’t prepared for the chorus of cheers that met his arrival.  
“Sans!”  
“Hey, Sans!”  
“Greetings!”  
“Sansy~, you’ve been gone so long!”  
“Did you get promoted or something?”  
“I bet he snagged an extra slot at MMT’s!”  
“I thought he was just standing really still...”  
Sans grinned. It was good to be remembered. “hey, everyone.” As soon as he and Papyrus got to the bar, Grillby set down a bottle of tomato sauce for him and a glass of milk for Papyrus.  
“Glad to have you back,” he said through a series of pops and crackles. It had taken Sans a while to learn how to understand Grillby, but not nearly as long as it had taken him to learn Wing-Dings. “You know, even if you’re not hungry, you can come by anytime to talk.”  
“huh. thanks, grillby.”

It was about an hour before Sans and Papyrus left Grillby’s. Pap seemed to be stalling him for some reason, even going so far as to order some fries as an excuse for them to stay. Watching him try to eat them was hilarious for everyone in the bar, especially after Sans covered them in sauce. Someone had actually started up a betting pool for how many he would get through. Grillby had to start giving the brothers mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce, insisting that they didn’t want to be drunk in the middle of the day.  
“well, it’s been fun, but i’d better get pap home. put this on my tab, grillby,” Sans said. People broke off from the crowd that was watching them and went back to their tables, chattering.  
“Hah! Twelve fries! Am I good or what?”  
“No, I saw him move at least fifteen times!”  
“Three of those times were writhing.”  
Sans chuckled as he stepped outside, letting Papyrus lean on his head. His brother had a really low sauce tolerance. Before he could take more than two steps, he heard Frisk shouting from somewhere above him.  
“Ready?” they yelled. Looking up, he saw they were sitting on the roof of Grillby’s. There were a bunch of other kids with them and scattered across other roofs. “GO!”  
The kids all pulled out hoses and turned them on. Water shot up and then rained down on the brothers, filling the air with rainbows. Frisk passed their hose to the scarf kid next to them and slid down the roof with a laugh. Sans caught the kid before they hit the ground and spun them around. “hey, kid, did you do this all for me?” he asked. Frisk nodded. They and Sans sat in the snow and watched the rain. Kids carefully positioned the hoses so they wouldn’t fall off the roofs before they jumped down. People were danced in the streets, wildly excited by the new weather.  
Papyrus flopped down next to Sans and Frisk. “THIS IS FRISKING BEAUTIFUL!”  
“oh my god,” Sans said, trying not to burst out laughing.  
“Was that a pun?”  
“yes.”  
“And a swear?”  
“yep. i need to bring pap to grillby’s more often.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise, the slightly weird behavior of Undyne and Alphys will be explained in the next chapter! Which will also be a return to all the sadness, because writing happy stuff just takes way to long for me.


	8. Please Don't Avoid Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally, I wouldn't want to talk about anything from the chapter until the end notes, but this has to be said. TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide, Attempted Suicide, and Suicidal Thoughts are all present in this chapter. I've updated the tags accordingly. And if you have any problem with how I've written this, tell me and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Sans rolled back into bed for the seventh time that morning, still not dressed. Papyrus would be mad. He should be. Sans was a disappointment. He would be worried, too. He shouldn’t be. Sans didn’t deserve it. There was a knock at the door. Sans flinched. It was Papyrus’ room, but he still knocked.  
“SANS...” Papyrus said as he entered. The pity in his voice was even worse than if he was angry. Sans crawled further under his covers. Papyrus walked over and sat on the bed, having to duck his head so as not to hit it on the top bunk. He started to say something, but sighed and just put a hand on Sans’ head, gently rubbing his thumb over the crack running from his right eye. “PLEASE,” he said, his voice cracking slightly, shattering Sans’ soul further. Maybe if Pap kept talking, it would snap him in two.  
“leave me alone,” he mumbled miserably. Papyrus left. Good. Maybe he would stay away this time. Sans could still _feel_ him moving around in the kitchen. He tried to bury himself further in his bedsheets to block it out. It didn’t work. Papyrus returned a few minutes later and left something on Sans’ nightstand. It smelled of spaghetti.  
“I’LL TELL UNDYNE YOU’RE SICK. I’M SURE SHE’LL GET SOMEONE TO FILL IN FOR YOU AT YOUR POSTS. ARE YOU... WILL YOU BE ALRIGHT IF I LEAVE YOU HERE FOR AN HOUR?” he asked.  
“go to work, pap. you’ve gotta guard the kid, right?” he needed to get Papyrus out of the house before something terrible happened.  
“YEEEEESSSSS... BUT I AM NOT SURE IT’S THE HUMAN I SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT.” Papyrus really was worried. It reminded Sans of last time he was this depressed. It was a different timeline, but one he remembered better than the others. The one where he had fully grasped what the RESETS meant. The first time he had found that picture from the surface. He wondered if Papyrus could remember that timeline. Hopefully not, but he couldn’t be sure anymore.  
“i’m fine. i just need...” Sans trailed off, not sure what he needed. “a walk.” He decided, getting up and grabbing a jacket. If Papyrus wouldn’t leave, then Sans would. Pap seemed uneasy with the sudden change in attitude, but glad that Sans was finally getting out of bed. Just to reassure Papyrus, Sans quickly ate the spaghetti before he left.  
“STAY SAFE, SANS!” Papyrus called, still looking a little unsettled, as Sans walked out the door. Sans was going to slip through the first shortcut he passed by, but that one happened to lead to Grillby’s. He turned away and started to walk in the opposite direction, but that way was the physical, non-shortcut route to Grillby’s. The universe was just having a good laugh at his expense, wasn’t it? Snarling in disgust, he turned and walked _away_. It didn’t matter where he was going, as long as it wasn’t anywhere in Snowdin. Especially not Grillby’s. He didn’t even want to think about the night before, but he found himself dwelling on it anyway.

_Sans knew he was drunk, which meant he wasn’t drunk enough. Ordering another bottle of sauce, he stumbled over to the jukebox._   
_“I see you moving over there, Sans! If you play that song one more time...!” Doggo called from across the room. Sans waved him off, but queued up a different song. Followed by five or six of Doggo’s least favourite song. He’d find it hilarious the next day, even if he’d never say so. On his way back to his seat, he felt something like a kicking in his ribcage that made him collapse to the floor._   
_“ w-what...?” he mumbled as Grillby rushed over._   
_“Sans, are you alright? Should I call Papyrus?” he asked. Sans could feel Grillby’s soul next to him, and the soul of every other patron._   
_“ no, no... j-just...” He could feel his eye flare up._   
_“It’s that serious then,” Grillby sighed, signalling for Red Bird to clear out the bar. Once everyone was gone, Grillby gently put a hand on Sans’ shoulder. Something in him... it didn’t snap. It clicked._   
_He had to be stronger, and there was only one way to do that. In this world, it was kill or be killed._   
_“Sans!” Grillby shouted, snapping Sans out of it. He was holding Grillby against the wall with one hand and a knife in the other. Grillby was making an effort not to look scared, but he had flared up enough to scorch Sans and the wall._   
_“ oh god,” Sans gasped, dropping him. Grillby landed on his feet and brushed himself off while Sans backed away._   
_“Sans, what was that?” he asked. Sans didn’t answer, and tried to let go of the knife. “What happened to you?” Sans tried to let go of the knife. “I’m going to have to call your brother.” Sans let go of the knife._   
_“ please, please don’t. grillby, please, he can’t... he doesn’t...” Grillby walked over and carefully picked up the knife, staying as far away from Sans as possible. Once he had returned it to the bar, he took out his phone. “no...”_   
_"Papyrus. It’s Grillby,” he said. Even though Papyrus couldn’t understand Grillby, he only ever called Pap for one reason._   
_Sans could hear Papyrus over the phone, even though it wasn’t on speaker. " I’LL BE RIGHT OVER.” There were only a few moments of silence between the two of them before Papyrus walked in. He paused, taking in the emptiness of the bar, and the scorch marks on the wall and Sans’ arm. “WHAT HAPPENED?” When no-one answered, he slung Sans over his shoulder and threw some gold on the nearest table. “TELL ME IF THAT DOESN’T PAY FOR THE DAMAGE.” With that, he carried Sans back home._

He hadn’t even heard anything from the other Sans, then or now. That anger at the thought of going back to Grillbys and finding everyone in his way, just begging for him to... to... It had to be the other Sans making him think those things. It had to be. But they felt like his own thoughts. Maybe he just wasn’t as good at telling them apart as he thought (but he knew he was). Yeah, that was the other him. Definitely a different feeling than when he was thinking.  
He ended up in Waterfall, just like last time. Another timeline, another Sans, but they still ended in the same place. They had different problems, but still thought of the same solution.

_Sans woke up slowly, turning his head to look out the window. He liked to see the sun rise, if he managed to wake up in time. He couldn’t see anything that morning through the snow. The weather was really weird topside. The day before had been really sunny._   
_With a stretch, he slipped out of bed. Something didn’t quite feel right about the room. He knew Papyrus had told the builders to make it look like their house in Snowdin, but the snow outside made it eerily similar. But the kid wouldn’t RESET. They hadn’t said as much, but they were happy._   
_Sans grabbed a dirty jacket from the floor and wiped away the frost that had started to form. Surely a look at the bustling monster city outside his window would comfort him._   
_Snowdin. He really was back in Snowdin. “ no. no. no no no no nononononononononono...” He couldn’t stop looking at that damn town. Everyone back, doing the exact same thing, nothing changing unless he or the flower or the GOD DAMNED KID did something to make them change. What happened? What made the kid RESET? What could he have done to stop them?_   
_It didn’t matter. He was back Snowdin. It didn’t matter. He was screaming. It didn’t matter. Papyrus was there. It didn’t... no. He was worrying Papyrus. That did matter._   
_“ SANS! SANS, PLEASE! LOOK AT ME! WHAT’S WRONG, WHAT HAPPENED?” he was asking, tears in his eyes._   
_Sans, only just realizing he had fallen to the floor, looked up at Papyrus. He tried to make a joke out of it, but he couldn’t find the words. Papyrus knelt down and tried to pull him into a hug, but Sans moved away. “ i... i have to... go,” he said, running out the door. Papyrus followed him, but Sans could be pretty fast when he wanted to be. He ran straight past all of Papyrus’ puzzles and into the forest near the ruins. Maybe if their happy ending was all just a dream, something he had made up in his sleep, nothing, false, never happened, he could just forget it. If that happiness wasn’t a possibility then the Underground would be bearable again. If they really had been up there and the kid had torn it all away from them, he didn’t know what he would do._   
_Papyrus was starting to catch up again, but Sans knew a shortcut back to his lab. It had to just be a dream. Maybe he just got too drunk or ate too much greasy food the night before. He was about to start the machine when he saw that there was something inside the scanning slot. With shaking hands, he pulled it out. It was a photo of everyone standing in real sunlight. They really had made it. They were out, and the kid had still RESET. What would it take to stop them? Why even bother? They would never be happy. They would always RESET. Nothing he did could stop that. Nothing he did would ever stay._   
_ it’s funny, i can do whatever i want, it’s a relief, it’s liberating, i can do whatever i want, i could **even ki-** No, he wasn’t quite broken enough for that. He just wouldn’t do it, not ever. He looked back at the photo. He actually looked happy. Like he didn’t know. Papyrus was happy. Because he didn’t know. Everyone except Frisk was smiling. How had he not noticed?_   
_He didn’t realize he had blacked out until he woke up on the couch, back in his house. Papyrus was sitting next to him, holding something in his hands._   
_“...SANS. WHAT... IS THIS? <” he asked. The thing was the photo, and suddenly the pieces clicked in Sans’ head. He had collapsed from the stress, which he hadn’t done in a while. Eventually, Papyrus had found him and the photo. Sans couldn’t explain it. Not without trying to explain everything. There was no excuse anymore, no lie that he could think of. But he couldn’t tell Papyrus that everything would just be RESET, again and again and again. Instead, he rolled back over and tried to sleep, ignoring Papyrus every time he tried to wake him up. If he just waited, then this would all go away. Haha. It was funny. It was a comfort. He could make as many mistakes as he wanted. It would all be wiped away on the whim of a child._   
_He was worrying Papyrus. It mattered. It didn’t matter. Could anything matter?_   
_Days, weeks, months passed. Papyrus tried to get Sans to eat. It didn’t matter. Eventually, even Papyrus seemed to give up. He still tried, but every time he looked at Sans he just seemed sad. Sans was just a burden now. It didn’t matter. Sans didn’t matter._   
_He found himself in Waterfall, with the trash. ‘It was where he belonged’ felt clichéd, but it was true. He stared out over the falls. What was down there, anyway? More trash? He inched closer. Still, he couldn’t see. He inched closer. The water tugged at his ankles, daring him to keep going. He inched closer. It was his last chance to turn around. He inched closer. He laughed._

Sans shuddered. He could still feel his bones cracking against the bottom. Last time, he didn’t have time to find out what was down there before he woke up in his bed, screaming in pain. He was probably lucky he didn’t remember everything right away. Getting the memories back in parts had helped him deal with it. If he got it all back at once, he might have tried again. It never would have worked.  
But this time... Frisk had seemed reluctant to even LOAD, let alone RESET. If he tried it this time, would he stay dead? The kid didn’t actually seem that fond of him anyway. Sure, they joked around and hung out with him, but they had to like Pap better than Sans. There was no way anyone could like Sans better than Papyrus.  
Papyrus. He would never find Sans’ dust down there. Would that be better or worse than seeing it mixed into the snow? Pap was so cool, and he had the kid with him now. He would be fine. Much better than Sans ever was when Pap died.  
Did he have anyone else to think of? The question was almost desperate. There was Toriel. She probably wouldn’t even know what happened. Undyne would hate him for hurting Papyrus. Alphys would calm her down eventually. Grillby... after what Sans did, he’d probably be happy to hear he disappeared. Was that all? How sad.  
Sans flinched as he felt the water rushing around his ankles. He had actually been moving toward the edge as he thought. He wasn’t sure what he was doing. He didn’t want to go back. He didn’t want to stay there, either. If he did, Alphys could come by. He didn’t know what he would do then. He couldn’t know anymore. He was dangerous.  
He was right at the edge, and he still couldn’t see anything down there. Cautiously, aware that the water was throwing his balance off a bit, he sat down. He let his feet hang over the edge, swinging in the darkness. He moved a little closer. Soon, he was only barely on the edge at all. And then he just... stopped holding on.  
He fell, the air screaming past him, almost sounding like his brother, until a very sudden jerking feeling stopped his fall. And then he was falling up, into Papyrus’ arms.  
“SANS, SANS, SANS, SANS, SANS...” he sobbed, pulling him back away from the edge. He was shaking and squeezing Sans to his chest, muttering his name over and over. Sans had made him cry, again.  
“bro, don’t-”  
“WHY? WHAT HAPPENED? WHY WOULD YOU... WAS IT SOMETHING I...?”  
“no! no, pap, no, you’re perfect. don’t go a-and blame yourself for... i was just... it was...” What _was_ he doing? “ heheh, jeez. making you worry like that... i really am the worst brother...”  
“N-NO! YOU C-CAN’T THINK THAT! IF YOU... I COULDN’T...” Both brothers sat there, crying, for the longest time. Neither of them moved until Undyne arrived.  
“NGAHHH! Sans, you little punk!” she cried, grabbing Sans’ hood and pulling him up to her eye level. “What the hell were you thinking, scaring m- everyone like that!”  
Alphys and Frisk got there shortly after her. Alphys’ stutter was made even worse by her gasping for breath. “U-Undyne... haah... d-don’t yell... haah... he n-needs to know t-that w-we’re h-h-ere for him...” she said, glancing at Sans with a bit too much understanding in her eyes. Maybe he didn’t know her as well as he thought.  
“Oh, I’ll be here for him! I’ll be here, training him SO HARD that he could JUMP INTO THE DAMN CORE and SURVIVE!”  
She put him back down in Papyrus’ lap and started making training plans. As she yelled her head off about all the drills she would make him do, Frisk crawled into Sans and Papyrus’ arms and hugged Sans tightly. “You tryna make me RESET or something?” they mumbled, muffled by Sans’ coat. Sans couldn’t answer. He was too busy looking at the people around him. They had actually come running. They had actually cared. “Promise me, next time, you’ll talk to someone. I don’t care who you talk to, but just... don’t go off alone again! Please...”  
“s-sure, kid. i promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, this is not the last we hear about this incident, even if Sans doesn't remember it. That little bit is not the only part we get of the characters dealing with this.


	9. A Chat With Grillby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after This Was Going To Happen Eventually and before Downtime.  
> It's another short one, mostly because anything else I tried to add sounded clunky. Still, Yay! Grillby! I dunno why, but I love him. I don't think I'll be moving him out of the bar, but he'll probably show up a little more often.

“Papyrus,” Frisk said one day as he was ‘teaching’ them how to make spaghetti. “Can you help me with something?”  
“OF COURSE, HUMAN! THAT IS WHAT I’M DOING RIGHT NOW!”  
“Heh, no, I meant with something else,” they explained. “I wanted to do something nice for Sans, but I’m not sure what. Do you have any ideas what he would like?”  
Papyrus put down his mixing spoon. “WHEN WE WERE FIGHTING GASTER, HE CREATED RAIN. IF HE WAS DOING IT THE SAME WAY I SUMMONED SNOW, THEN IT MUST BE IMPORTANT TO HIM.”  
“But the only place it rains down here is in Waterfall.” They both flinched a little. The rain wasn’t too close to the dump, but neither of them really wanted Sans anywhere near Waterfall. Not that they could tell him that without bringing up ‘why’, which no-one wanted to do. “Maybe... we could make it so that it rains here! We’d just need to distract him while we set it up!”  
“HOW CLEVER! I COULD TAKE HIM WITH ME FOR TRAINING AT UNDYNE’S. WHICH IS... IN WATERFALL...”  
“How about Grillby’s?” they suggested. Papyrus looked uncomfortable. “Just for a little bit? I know you don’t like going there, but...” Papyrus shifted his weight from foot to foot the way he did when he had a secret he desperately wanted to talk about. “What is it?”  
“W-WELL... IT WAS BEFORE...” He closed his eyes for a second, and his posture shifted. Frisk smiled to see him and Cool Pap getting along so well. Cool Papyrus was usually content to just sit back and watch everyone enjoying themselves, but sometimes when the Great Papyrus was feeling uncomfortable with something he would happily help him through it. “The day before Sans tried to... well... He and Grillby had some sort of fight. We think that might have been what made him...”  
“Oh.” With that, Frisk made a decision. They jumped off the little stool they were using to see over the bench and took off their apron. “I’m going to go talk to Grillby and find out what happened. Depending on that, we’ll see what else we can do to distract him.”  
Papyrus moaned about not being done teaching them about spaghetti, but let them leave. The walk over was short but cold. Frisk was happy to have the jumper Toriel had knitted for them, even if the plain white color didn’t suit them. Still, it did really help whenever they challenged Papyrus to a game of hide-and-seek.  
They sighed as they got to Grillby’s. They had talked to him, once or twice throughout the timelines, and he had listened. Once, they had even told him everything just to convince him that they were mentally old enough for a beer. He’d listened, but it was hard to tell if he believed them. Either way, he had still refused. “Hey Grillby,” Frisk said, checking their seat for a whoopee cushion before sitting down. Grillby held out a menu. “Actually, I’m here to talk about Sans. Is there somewhere private we can chat?” He waved them behind the bar and toward the fire door. He had to hold it open for them, since they weren’t fire, then lead them through the small kitchen and out through the back door. Frisk wondered why the snow wasn’t melting around him as he leaned against the wall and pulled out a smoke, lighting it on his finger.  
“Um. Before I try to explain anything, do you mind if I asked exactly what happened that night?” they asked. Grillby crackled in that way he did when he was talking. “Oh right. I can’t understand what you’re saying. Do you speak any other languages? Or sign?”  
Grillby perked up at that. ‘Yes, I can. But I am rusty. No-one else in the underground does, so I do not practice much,’ he signed. ‘How did you learn?’  
Frisk smiled and signed, ‘I never liked speaking. But I had to get over that during those speeches.’  
‘Speeches?’ Damn, they had to be more careful. Grillby was a little too easy to talk to, and they didn’t intend to tell him everything this time. When Frisk didn’t answer Grillby moved back to the original question. ‘That night, Sans seemed normal until he collapsed. I cleared out the bar just in case. When I tried to help him up, he almost killed me. Then he stopped and I called his brother.’  
‘So that is what was bothering him. He was feeling guilty,’ Frisk signed. Grillby tilted his head in the universal sign for curiosity. ‘The day after that, Sans tried to throw himself off of Waterfall.’ Grillby let off a violent crack that almost sounded like a swear, and the snow around him started to melt a little before he settled himself. ‘You probably should not mention that to anyone else. I told you because you are his friend. But really, I came here to explain and apologize for him. He was not himself that day. An experiment went wrong and long story short, sometimes Sans is not quite Sans at all. Does that make sense?’ Grillby nodded. ‘He is feeling better now, though. Mostly because he can’t remember a lot of what happened.’  
‘Perhaps that is for the best,’ Grillby signed. He dropped his smoke and ground it out, somehow. ‘Was there anything else I could do for you?’  
‘I did want to check something. Is Sans banned from Grillby’s for what happened?’ Frisk asked. Grillby shook his head, the cracking turning into a chuckle.  
‘I would go out of business banning my best customer. And I could not ban a friend in need.’ he signed as he walked back inside. ‘But I will be keeping an eye on him. I have the safety of the other patrons to worry about.’


	10. What's Up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait for what turned out to be a pretty short chapter! I was going back through everything else and checking for error. I figured it was a good time to do it, since I'm now posting these chapters on Tumblr as well! Most of them are there now, but it's mostly an ask/rp blog set after this fanfic. It's all canon, but has progressed far beyond all this.  
> http://undertalebrothertale.tumblr.com/  
> 

Frisk was getting ready to visit Toriel when Sans finally came downstairs. “So you’re actually getting up today?” they asked with a joking grin.  
“yup. where’s pap? he usually wakes me up way before now.” he replied.  
“He had to go to a training session with Undyne really early this morning.” Frisk neglected to mention that the session was to make up for the one he missed following Sans and Alphys to the dump, just in case. “He asked me to wake you up, but I thought you could sleep in today. It’s your day off, you deserve a break. That, and you’d just fall asleep right after I left anyway.”  
“thanks,” he said. Frisk slipped on their jumper and started to leave before they noticed Sans was lingering uncertainly on the stairs.  
“Are you okay?” they asked, closing the door. They sat next to Sans on the steps.  
“yeah, yeah... i just thought i remembered something.”  
Frisk sighed. “Oh. If you’re remembering what I think you are, I just want to apologize for not telling you sooner. We didn’t want to-”  
“why did you go to Mt Ebott?” Sans asked suddenly.  
Frisk had to take a second to let the question sink in. “What does that have to do with...?”  
“nothing. i don’t have much to say about that. and i was curious about what a kid like you was doing climbing a mountain like that. you knew the rumor, right? how kids who climbed it never returned?”  
“Well... yeah. I did,” they admitted, shifting nervously.  
“so? why?”  
“It’s... um... I just...” they tried to find a way out of telling the story, like a pun or some excuse, but eventually sighed in defeat. “Okay. I guess I can tell you. Just... keep it to yourself, alright? All this LOADING and stuff... didn’t start in the Underground. The first time I managed to do it was when my dad died. I think I was about three, because I can’t remember it very well. I do remember that eventually, I learned how to speak well enough to tell him that he was going to die. That loop, Mum got really scared when he did and hit me. I don’t think she meant to, it just happened. When she did, I accidentally SAVED. It took me a while to realize I only had one SAVE. So, uh... yeah, that meant he was gone for good. I lived with Mum for a while, and I kept trying to keep her safe. I’d LOAD if she so much as stubbed her toe and warn her about it. I was just trying to keep her safe, but... it got too much for her. One time, I was talking a bit too much about it and she actually tried to strangle me...” Frisk absent-mindedly put a hand to their throat.  
“ **what.** ”  
“N-no, no, it was my fault, I-”  
“kid, you can’t seriously think that.”  
“I drove her a little crazy!”  
“she. **strangled.** you. ”  
“M-maybe... but she was really, really sorry about it!”  
“ **doesn’t matter.** ”  
Frisk was really glad they said ‘tried’ instead of mentioning that she succeeded. “Do you want me to finish the story or not?” Sans nodded, but he was still tense. “Good. So, after a while, she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and shipped me off to boarding school. If there was one thing I actually hated, it was boarding school. I learned pretty quickly that people found my LOADING weird, so I tried not to do it. But by that time, people already knew about it. Some of them would ask me for favors, like going back to before a test and telling them the answers. The teachers really didn’t appreciate that. If they even thought I was doing it, they gave me detention for a week. When I refused to do it, the other students started hating me. That’s where I learned to dodge.” Sans was about to interrupt again. “You wanted me to tell you about it, Sans! Should I start leaving things out?”  
“... no.”  
“So anyway, one time in history we learned all about MT Ebott. The teachers warned us not to climb it, of course. After class, I heard some other students talking. Even after all of this time, I still remember what they said, word for word. ‘Sounds like that Frisk freak belongs up there with all those monsters!’ Well, I thought they had a point, so... yeah. I climbed Mt Ebott. I didn’t find any monsters at first, but I did find a big hole. So I thought ‘I can’t go back. Why not?’ Then I ended up down here, and you pretty much know the rest.”  
“wow, kid. uh. i’m sorry?”  
“No problem. I’m actually kind of glad to have told someone. But now you have to answer a question of mine. _Honestly_.”  
“ depends on the question.”  
“Why did you _really_ want to know?”  
“ am i really that easy to read?” he sighed. “fine. i was wondering if i should keep trying to find a way to the surface. we all look really happy in that photo, y’know? but...”  
“No, no, no! You can’t judge the surface on that!” Frisk said, jumping up. “When we got up there everyone _was_ happy! Papyrus made so many new friends, Toriel started a school, Undyne opened a gym, and you, Alphys, and I all worked in the same lab with a bunch of other scientists! We were all... so happy... before the stupid Chara stuff.”  
“ are you blaming yourself for that RESET? i thought you said I told you to do that.”  
“Yeah, but... I broke my promise. I swore that as soon as I fixed things I would RESET and bring us all back to the surface. But it’s been months now, and I still haven’t.”  
“you really feel guilty about that?” Sans asked. Frisk nodded. “alright. then why don’t we look for a way up together? without RESETS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we have a choice of which story to do next: Should I expand on the first time they got out, or start with this 'getting them out' plan?


	11. Fun Times With Flowey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place at various points in the timeline, starting just after Brothertale. I trust you guys to pick up where all the others are.  
> TRIGGER WARNING: Flowey is a massive jerk and basically tells Sans to commit suicide (shortly before he tries to do just that). I know it's probably not the worst thing anyone's ever written on the subject, but I still had to take a break halfway through writing it.

“Howdy, friend!” Flowey said as he popped up next to Papyrus. He had to go right back down to avoid being hit with a bone. Had the idiot finally figured out-?  
“OH! FLOWEY! I APOLOGISE, I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAINING!” Of course not. Flowey popped out again, smiling sweetly.  
“I forgive you, friend! You sure do work hard. It’s only a matter of time before Undyne lets you into the Royal Guard!”  
“AH, YOU MUST NOT HAVE HEARD! I AM ALREADY IN THE GUARD!” That was fast. Flowey knew a few timelines where Papyrus got into the Royal Guard, but he didn’t think Frisk would reach _any_ endings in the few days off he had decided to take. Still, hearing whatever bullshit position Undyne had made up for that idiot was always a laugh.  
“Oh? That’s great, pal! What kind of guardsman are you now?”  
“ I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE ATTAINED THE RANK OF ‘THE HUMAN’S OFFICIAL BODYGUARD’! IT IS QUITE THE HONOUR!” Papyrus said proudly. It was enough to make Flowey gag until the actual title sunk in. Frisk was still in the underground? _That_ was unusual. Not that he had been expecting them to be out, but Papyrus never made it into the Royal Guard while they were still there.  
“Golly, there’s a human down here and you have to _protect_ them? There must be a great story behind that!”  
“ YES, THERE IS! BUT... I’M NOT SURE I SHOULD BE TELLING IT TO YOU.”  
That was the strangest thing yet. That idiot had always been more than willing to spill anything that was on his mind. “Come on, buddy. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone else.” Flowey let a trace of a whimper into his voice. “You’re my only friend. And I can’t have cool adventures like you, Papyrus! It gets really boring sometimes when you’re away. Your stories are the best part of my day. They’re just so awesome! Like you!”  
Flowey had to hold back a cackle when the idiot looked sorry for him. Pity was a great motivator, and Flowey could play on that perfectly. “THAT IS... UNFORTUNATE. BUT I HAVE BEEN TOLD IT’S A BIG SECRET THAT I MUST NOT TELL ANYBODY!”  
It hadn’t worked? Whatever happened must have been _big_. He would have to try to talk it out of the idiot later, though, and just try to pick up what he could by spying on everyone until then. Flowey sighed dejectedly. “Well, if it’s a secret, I guess I’ll just have to put up with not knowing. See ya.”

Flowey had to wait a while before anything interesting happened. He hadn’t managed to find out much about what had happened, other than the fact that the idiot chef somehow knew about the RESETS now. That, and Frisk wasn’t RESETTING. Flowey hadn’t thought much about the comedian’s role in things until that night. He was watching Grillby’s, since watching an observer like Sans was the best way to learn what he knew. Besides that, something was off about him. Maybe the comedian was more involved this time.  
He attacked Grillby. This certainly was new. The look in his eye, and the way he moved with that knife... It couldn’t be. He didn’t go through with it. Soon his idiot brother was there and taking him away. _Aw. But I wanted to see if he’d do it._ Flowey waited until Sans was alone in his room before paying him a visit. He didn’t know exactly how he popped up from the floorboards in the comedian’s room, but he managed.  
“Howdy!” he said, expecting an attack that didn’t come. Sans was sitting on his mattress, shivering and hugging himself like he was trying to hold his ribcage together. Or break it. He was too busy staring into space to answer, which was a bit frustrating. “Hey! I’m talking here!” Sans slowly dragged his eyes to Flowey. “That’s better, Sans. Or Chara?”  
Sans finally snapped to attention with a brilliantly horrified look on his face. “ no. chara’s dead.”  
“Really? That’s news to me!” Flowey giggled. “Oh, I almost forgot to congratulate you on how you handled that knife before! Grillby was really squirming! Maybe that’s why I thought you were Chara. My mistake!” Sans looked distant again. _Augh, boring. I thought he’d at least-_ Suddenly, Sans jumped up and rushed downstairs. “Hey! Where are you going?” Flowey followed him down to some lab in his basement. “Huh. Nice place. And one less place you can hide from me now!” he cackled. Sans was too busy muttering to himself to pay attention. “What are you even doing?”  
Sans laughed weakly. “ hahah... for once... you’re right.”  
“Wait, really?”  
“not the way _you_ want, but yeah. they’re still dead, but there’s a bit of them left... heheh, i suppose that makes sense. without them, i wouldn’t be remembering things, would i? ”  
“Oh, so you remember things too? Even that time you started killing people?”  
“oh, i remember killing them,” he said, and Flowey suddenly realized how small the lab was.  
“S-So, how does it feel to know you’re just as bad as they are? Honestly, what _would_ your brother think?” Flowey said, and was relieved to see Sans falter. “You know, it’s probably only a matter of time before you slip up. Who do you think will be first? Maybe Frisk, since they seem to like being around you now.” Sans backed away as if Flowey’s words were friendliness pellets. “What about all the monsters at Grillby’s? Hey, maybe with your speed you could take out Undyne! Although I’d suggest starting with Alphys, she’s a much easier target.”  
“ no, no, i won’t...”  
“You’re right, I suppose,” Flowey sighed, drinking in the spark of hope that crossed Sans’ expression before he crushed it. “You’re much more likely to kill Papyrus first since he’s always so close to you. After that, with your shortcuts, no-one’s safe from you! Nothing will be safe until you’re **dead**! Congratulations! You’ll probably be a much better Chara than Frisk ever was!” Flowey ducked out of the way of a flying bone and stayed for just long enough to see Sans looking at his hands, horrified that he had attacked. With a final, mocking laugh, Flowy left Sans to think everything over.

Flowey actually had to duck underground to hide his laughter when Papyrus told him what Sans did. The comedian had tried to kill himself! Flowey managed to compose himself before popping back out.  
“Golly, Papyrus! That sounds awful! Are you okay?” he asked, even though it was obvious that he wasn’t. There were still tear-tracks on his skull.  
“Y-YEAH... I WASN’T THE ONE W-WHO... I CAN’T... IF I’M NOT OKAY, WHO WILL BE THERE FOR SANS?”  
“But Papyrus, you’re important too! If I were you, I’d tell your brother all about it! I’m sure he’d appreciate knowing how you feel!” Flowey said, putting a comforting vine on Papyrus’ shoulder. He could just imagine Sans’ face when he heard how miserable he had made Papyrus. And if Papyrus didn’t listen to him and decided to hide his misery, then he would be well on his way to a breakdown! It was win-win for Flowey! Papyrus seemed torn.  
“Papyrus!” they heard Frisk calling. Without saying goodbye, Flowey popped right back into the ground.

Flowey was disappointed to hear that Sans had forgotten everything after and including the incident at Grillby’s, but he was a little too distracted by the feeling that he had forgotten something too. So he wasn’t paying any attention until Papyrus said, “SO THEY DECIDED THAT THEY WOULD TRY TO FIND ANOTHER WAY TO GET US ALL TO THE SURFACE!”  
“What?” he shouted. He wasn’t ready! He hadn’t even spoken to Frisk yet, and he still had no idea what was going on!  
“I WAS SCEPTICAL TOO, BUT SEEING HOW HARD THEY’RE WORKING, I THINK THEY CAN DO IT! THE EVEN SAID I COULD HELP ONCE THEY GET PAST ALL OF THE THEORETICAL STAGES!” Papyrus said excitedly.  
“Wow, I sure am interested in that! You’ll keep telling me how they’re going, won’t you, buddy?” Flowey said, trying to act casual.  
“OF COURSE, FRIEND! AS LONG AS I’M NOT TOLD THAT IT IS TOP SECRET!”  
“Thanks, pal. Well, I’d better be going! Glad to hear that your brother is doing better!”


	12. Time Shenanigans (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place before Brothertale. I wasn’t going to post this until after writing the ‘training’ bit of it, but then my computer crashed for two days and I couldn’t write or post. I thought I should keep the updates regular rather than long.

Sans woke up slowly, turning his head to look out the window. He liked to see the sun rise if he managed to wake up in time. He was a little late that morning. Stretching, he tried to go back to sleep until someone started knocking on the door.  
“paaaaap...”  
“Actually, it’s Frisk!” the kid called through the door.  
“oh. you’re up early.”  
“Sans, it’s 4 pm. Have you been in bed all day?”  
“... maybe. in my defense, pap didn’t wake me up today.”  
“When I asked him to let you sleep in, I didn’t think you’d still be in bed by now. We start work in half an hour!” When Sans didn’t respond, Frisk slipped into the room. “If you don’t get up, I’m going to clean up your trash tornado.” Sans groaned, pulled himself out of bed, and started getting dressed.  
“don’t you have an ambassador thing to go to?” he asked as they went downstairs.  
Frisk sighed. “That’s after my shift at the lab.”  
“are you getting any sleep, kid?” Sans asked, concerned.  
“Hah, I think you sleep enough for the both of us!” they laughed. Sans crossed his arms and leaned against the front door, refusing to move without a real answer. “... I get about three or four hours on a good night.”  
“and when was the last ‘good night’?”  
“Um... I can’t really remember. Maybe a month ago?”  
“frisk...”  
“Can we talk about this after work, please? We’re going to be late,” they snapped. They both glared for a second before Frisk softened. “Okay. I promise that tonight I’ll look at my schedule and see what I can cut out. I definitely don’t need grade eight math and science.”  
“heheh, that’s for sure. come on then. if you don’t hurry up, we’ll be late.”

Frisk slumped down on the desk with a defeated moan. They were looking through their schedule, like they promised, mostly so they could put off their homework. Of course, now they were considering doing it the other way around.  
“Frisk, darling, are you alright?” Toriel asked, walking in with a plate of pie.  
“Yeah, ‘m just... looking over this,” they answered with a yawn.  
“Ah, good! I wanted to speak with you about how many responsibilities you were taking on.”  
“Augh, not you too,” they sighed. “Sans and Alphys are already on my case about it, and even Papyrus ‘subtly’ brought it up a few days ago.”  
Toriel set the pie down on their desk. “They are simply worried for you, my child. We all are. You have worked yourself so hard these last few months, and it is starting to show.”  
“Well, there’s been a lot of stuff I’ve had to do. There’s school, and ambassadorial duties, and the lab, not to mention all of the stupid police interviews right after we got out.” For some reason, Frisk had never considered that they would be put on the missing person’s list. It had taken a while to leave that behind and start living with Toriel, especially since monsters didn’t have the rights to adopt children. Still, they had made some special arrangements for ‘the monster’s ambassador’.  
Toriel looked at the papers scattered on Frisk’s desk. “Tomorrow seems to be free for you.”  
“Are you kidding?” Frisk said, waving the page for the next day’s activities around.  
“There is nothing there that cannot be canceled. You are resting tomorrow,” Toriel said. That tone left no room for argument. “Oh! Perhaps I shall call your friends over! You worked very hard to free everyone. It is time you enjoyed your freedom.”  
Frisk really did try to enjoy themself. Papyrus, Sans, Alphys, and Undyne had all come over and they were watching anime. Frisk had trouble paying attention and had to keep asking Alphys to explain what was going on.  
“Oh, t-this part is cool! Meliodas just got hit by Gilthunder, and it looks like he’s dying b-but it’s a trick! He’s using it to g-get information about two of the other Seven Deadly Sins!” Alphys gushed. She was saying something else, but Frisk wasn’t paying much attention. They were too busy thinking of what they were supposed to be doing that day.  
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, HUMAN?” Papyrus asked, putting a hand on their head.  
Frisk looked up at him. They didn’t have the heart to say that they wanted to be somewhere else. “Of course.”  
“Hah, I bet they’re just tired of sitting around!” Undyne said. Frisk thought it over for a second.  
“Actually... yeah! Hey Undyne, you wanna go train?”  
Undyne jumped up onto the couch “Hell yeah! It’s bestie training time!”


	13. Time Shenanigans (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Self-harm.

Sans watched Frisk and Undyne position themselves on opposite sides of the front lawn. The wind had started howling, for some reason. He, and Papyrus stood a bit back from the battlefield. Tori was still inside, baking a pie for lunch and probably avoiding watching Frisk battle. She seemed uncomfortable with the idea, but didn’t stop them. Alphys decided to help her out. Papyrus was cheering general encouragements since he wasn’t able to decide who to cheer for. Sans couldn’t decide who to be afraid for. He had to remind himself that it wasn’t a real battle. Neither of them would really be trying to kill each other.  
“You ready, BESTIE?” Undyne called. Frisk nodded, lowering themself into their dodging stance. Undyne grinned. The kid’s soul _pinged_ green and Undyne threw them a spear that they snatched out of the air. They blocked the first round of spears without breaking a sweat.  
“Your attacks are too easy!” Frisk yelled with a smile.  
“WHAT?” she screamed, attacking faster. After a furious volley of spears, Frisk’s soul _pinged_ again, letting them move. They didn’t waste a second, surprising everyone by running _toward_ Undyne. “Haha, not running away this time?” Frisk didn’t respond. They ran in a straight line, not even bothering to dodge the spears as they sped right past them. Undyne had been aiming to miss them, just like she did with Papyrus. The kid slammed into Undyne, actually managing to knock her over. Sans forced himself to take a few nervous breaths, which made Papyrus give him a concerned glance. Sans smiled weakly, which seemed to reassure Pap.  
Undyne had already gotten up. “Pretty impressive! You’ve got some skills!” The kid didn’t react for a second. They were looking down at the ground, shoulders slumped.  
“You think _that_ was skilled? I wasn’t even trying. I didn’t have to.” they laughed bitterly. “You underestimated me. You _all_ do.” Sans’ breath caught in his throat. _That_ was the thing that was bothering him. The kid wasn’t fighting like themself at all. That direct style was more Chara’s thing.  
Papyrus started walking toward them, looking concerned. For a split second Sans could actually see that splash of bright red in the snow that meant he had failed, again. He shook his head to clear it and grabbed his brother’s arm. “ bro, don’t.”  
The kid hadn’t noticed, and kept talking. “You think I’m still just some kid. Even Sans doesn’t really remember what happened.”  
They weren’t going to tell everyone about that, were they? “kid-”  
“No-one knows how many times I’ve been through the underground. Even though I was probably going mad, I never wanted to get out. Do you want to know what changed my mind?” Everyone was too stunned to answer. “One time, I got bored and _killed you all_. And at the end was Sans. H-He used my own dirty trick against me.”  
_no, no, no... not in front of pap, please, he can’t hear this, he **can’t**!_ Sans let go of Papyrus’ arm and started walking toward the kid. He could feel his eye-lights go out. “ frisk...”  
“We were fighting, but he spared me.”  
“stop.”  
“And then, when I accepted his kindness...”  
“ **shut! up!** ”  
“... he killed me.”  
Sans grabbed them by the shirt, not willing to use his blue magic in front of Papyrus, and slammed them into the ground. He wanted to scream at them, but he didn’t have the energy. “please. not now,” he whispered, holding back tears. The kid didn’t seem to have even heard him. They just continued the morbid little story.  
“I was... happy. He was the first real challenge. But as I died, I heard him say something. ‘If we’re really friends... you won’t come back.’ That actually made me feel sad. Almost guilty. So I reset and I did things right. I h-had to... make it up to all of you. B-but I can’t! I’m n-not good enough!” They had started sobbing.  
“HUMAN? SANS? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Papyrus asked, taking a few shaky steps toward them. Sans let go of Frisk.  
“the kid had a bad dream last night,” Sans said, disgusted at how easily he could lie to Papyrus now.  
“LIKE THE ONES YOU GET?” Papyrus was right next to them, putting a hand on Sans’s shoulder and looking down at where the kid still lay.  
“... yeah.”  
Pap knelt down, despite Sans’ protest, and held out a hand to the kid. They looked at it, their eyes going unfocused for a second. “SOMETIMES I GET NIGHTMARES, TOO. IF YOU EVER NEED TO TALK, THEN I AM USUALLY AWAKE!”  
Frisk took his hand. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. Maybe we’ll, ah, talk about it later?” they said, glancing at Sans, obviously intending that last part for him.  
Undyne snapped out of her stupor. “Nightmares.” she said. It didn’t sound like she believed them, and she was glaring suspiciously at Sans in particular. “You almost killed them for talking about their NIGHTMARES?”  
“THAT DID SEEM LIKE AN OVERREACTION.”  
“i... uh...” Sans nervously ran a hand over his skull, trying to think up an excuse.  
“I asked him to,” Frisk cut in. “When I flashbacks to nightmares like that, I can sometimes get violent. So I told him that if it looked like I was going to do something stupid he should shock me out of it.” Everyone seemed to accept that answer. Despite how angry he still was, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit grateful. That excuse explained what he had just done and gave him a reason to tell Pap to stay away from them during their ‘flashbacks’. “So, uh... who wants to check on the pie?”  
Undyne and Papyrus both cheered, apparently already past the incident. As they headed back inside, Frisk signed to Sans. He wasn’t great at signing yet, but he could make out the words ‘so, so, sorry.’

Sans was about to visit Frisk for that talk, but paused at Papyrus’ door. With a sigh, he knocked.  
“OH, SANS! YOU ARE AWAKE?” Papyrus asked when he opened the door.  
“yeah. i was just thinking about what you said today. about having nightmares sometimes?” Sans said, trying not to make a big deal about it.  
Papyrus looked uncomfortable. “AH. UM, I WASN’T ENTIRELY HONEST WHEN I SAID ‘SOMETIMES’. I DIDN’T WANT TO WORRY ANYONE.”  
Sans started shaking. “bro?”  
“T-THEY’RE NOT ALWAYS NIGHTMARES! SOMETIMES THEY’RE REALLY NICE! ONCE I DREAMED THAT THE HUMAN WAS OLDER, AND WHEN THEY CAME TO SNOWDIN THEY DECIDED TO STAY WITH US FO A LONG TIME! YOU WERE VERY HAPPY TO HAVE SOMEONE HELP YOU WITH... WHATEVER IT WAS YOU DID DOWN IN THE BASEMENT. BESIDES, I NEVER REMEMBER THE NIGHTMARES.”  
Sans wasn’t used to Papyrus dodging his questions. It was usually the other way around. “how often do you get ‘em, pap?”  
Papyrus looked around, as if he didn’t have to answer Sans if he wasn’t looking at them. His eyes seemed to flash orange for a second before he answered. “ALMOST EVERY TIME I SLEEP.” Sans had the sudden and violent urge to punch something.  
“ _almost_ every time? ”  
“WELL, WHENEVER YOU AND I NAP ON THE COUCH I DON’T DREAM AT ALL!” Papyrus said, brightening up a little.  
“but... that’s the only time you ever sleep,” Sans said a second before the pieces fell together in his mind. “oh...”  
“DO NOT WORRY, BROTHER! I ACTUALLY DON’T NEED TO SLEEP THAT OFTEN ANYWAY! I AM ALWAYS FILLED WITH ENERGY!” Pap said, putting a comforting hand on Sans’ head. His irritation died down a little, replaced by regret. Papyrus had always been energetic, but he had only stopped sleeping after that Gaster incident. Sans didn’t know if it was the determination or something else that caused it, but he still felt guilty.  
“hey, uh... maybe when i get back we could watch some tv? there are probably some re-runs of mettaton’s talk show on.” Sans said with a smile. Papyrus grinned back and swept him up into a hug.  
“THAT SOUNDS EXCELLENT! I’LL BE WAITING!”  
Once Papyrus let him out of the hug and went back to his room, Sans slipped outside and took a shortcut to Frisk’s house. He made sure not to take the one that led directly into their room. Last time he did that they had some choice words to say about it. With some effort, he managed to open one up right outside their door, glad that he had learned how to create shortcuts as well as use them.  
“hey kid,” he whispered, gently knocking on the door. There was a moment of frantic scrabbling from the other side before they opened the door a crack.  
“h-hey Sans,” they replied, letting him in and closing the door behind him. They stood there silently for a moment before Frisk spoke up. “I wanted to apologize. I was out of line today. I shouldn’t have said anything, especially not in front of the others.”  
“so that was you? not ch-”  
Frisk jumped and put a hand over his mouth, trembling violently. “P-please, don’t say their name!” Sans gently pulled their hands away, and they looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry... They once said that they were ‘the demon that comes when people call its name’. I don’t wanna risk it right now.”  
Before Sans let go of their hands, he noticed something worrying. “is that blood under your nails?”  
“No!” they said, snatching their hands back and hiding them behind their back. They were obviously lying.  
“come to think of it, it’s a bit warm for a long-sleeved shirt like that.”  
“Well, you’re wearing a jacket!”  
“heat doesn’t bother me. roll up your sleeves.” Frisk stumbled over more excuses, backing up until they were right against the wall. “come on, kid. i just wanna see if you’re okay.”  
They stopped talking and slid down the wall. “I’m not. I’m really not.” Defeated, they rolled up their sleeves to reveal angry red gashes running up their arms. They had obviously only just stopped bleeding.  
“kiddo...” Sans didn’t know what to say, so he just sat next to them, gently patting their head.  
“I meant what I said before. Up here is miserable. The only reason I even tried to break the barrier was for all of you,” they said, the panic gone from their voice, leaving them speaking pretty tonelessly. “I have to make up for what I did, but I can’t. And sometimes, that makes me so angry. I try to blame it on _them_ , because that’s what I always do. Haha. It’s terrible, isn’t it? That I never blame myself. Then I thought ‘if I’m hurt, maybe that will hurt _them_ too.’ But... Maybe that’s just another case of using _them_ as an excuse.”  
They both sat there for a bit. Sans knew exactly what he should say, but he really didn’t want to. Not one bit. Still, it was for the kid. He couldn’t just leave them to suffer. “ maybe it’s about time we told everyone everything,” he sighed.  
“But they’ll hate me...” Frisk muttered, curling up into themselves.  
“hey, do i hate you?” he asked. Frisk didn’t answer. “i don’t. but if it’ll make you feel better, we could try getting rid of ch- them before we say anything.”  
“You’d help me do that?” They looked up at him. He nodded, and Frisk finally smiled. “Um... could you... stay here tonight?” they asked, blushing. Sans paused. He had promised Papyrus, but he didn’t want to leave the kid alone.  
“pap’s waiting for me at home. how about we leave a note for tori and you can come over to my place?” he suggested. Frisk agreed. Soon, with the help of shortcuts, they were back at Sans’ house and lying on the couch with Papyrus. Sans fell asleep almost immediately, knowing that Pap and Frisk would keep each other company until they fell asleep too.


	14. Time Shenanigans (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify: Gaster always speaks in hands, but I only use Wingdings for his speech when we're looking through the 'eyes' of a character who doesn't understand.

Alphys was a bit nervous, or more nervous than usual, going back into the lab the next day. According to Undyne, she had to be careful around Frisk? Something about violent flashbacks to nightmares? She sounded serious, and Frisk really did look tired and irritated when she saw them.  
“H-Hey! I t-thought you, um, d-didn’t have work today?” Alphys said when they met in the lab. Frisk was tinkering with the machine Sans always brought to whatever lab he worked in, and Sans napped in a chair nearby.  
s “Sans and I have a little side-project going,” they explained, grabbing a rubber band from the box next to them and flicking it at Sans. He grumbled as he woke up.  
“augh... oh nooo... rubber bands, my only weakness... everythin’s fading...” he said, gripping his skull where it hit and writing in exaggerated agony.  
“I’ll tell Papyrus your last words were ‘I love you’,” Frisk sighed, not even looking up at him.  
He gasped in mock horror. “al, help, i’m being slandered!” Alphys giggled timidly, earning a happy grin from Sans before he turned serious. “actually, maybe al _can_ help. we’re a little stuck here. ”  
“Uh, hang on, let me just move out of the way. And make sure to cover your ears,” Frisk said, carefully untangling themself from the exposed wiring. They and Sans put on earmuffs. “Okay, G, try again!” Suddenly an electronic, cracking screech filled the air. Frisk signed and the noise stopped. They looked expectantly at Sans, who shook his head. “God damn it!” they hissed, stopping just short of kicking the machine. For a second, Alphys could see what Undyne had been worried about.  
“so, uh... we’re trying to reach gaster,” Sans said as they watch Frisk dive back into the tangle of wires.  
“Who’s Gaster?”  
“not really sure. i met him once, but we got off on the wrong foot. he kept trying to talk to me, but there’s some interference or something. from what i can tell, he’s trying to reach us from some place he calls ‘the void’,” he explained, showing Alphys their data. All of it was written down, probably because Frisk preferred hard copies of data to looking at things on screens.  
“Photon readings n-negative? B-but that can’t... it’s n-not possible!” Alphys said, looking through the notes.  
“that’s what the scan said.”  
“D-do you think the interference could be ch-changing the readings?”  
“i dunno. but there’s one more thing you should probably know about gaster. you remember back in the old lab? how pap got sick and i left?”  
Alphys shuddered. “H-how could I f-forget? I was r-really w-worried about you t-two...”  
“sorry. anyway, gaster was somehow involved. i can’t tell you all the details, but he might have saved pap’s life,” he said. Alphys was about to ask how, but Sans cut her off. “we need his help again, so we’re trying to see if we can find him.”  
“Sans!” Frisk called, “Can you ask Gaster how it went on his end? If you’re feeling up to it, anyway.”  
“sure,” he said, walking over to the machine. He didn’t seem happy about it. Closing his eyes tightly, he put a hand on the machine and winced. He pulled away, but his hand wouldn’t stop twitching.  
“S-Sans, um, are you o-okay?” Alphys asked.  
“i’m fine, al. frisk, gaster said nothing changed there.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the trembling.  
“Augh. Well, at least it didn’t get _worse_ this time. Go take a break,” Frisk said.  
“ yessss...” Sans said as he collapsed back into his chair. There was an awkward silence, punctuated only be the occasional curse from Frisk.  
“Ah... um, F-Frisk? You’re, ah, t-trying to put that in b-backwards,” Alphys said.  
“What? Oh. You’re right,” they sighed. “Do you think you could give me a hand? I’m not one hundred percent sure what I’m doing right now.”  
“O-of course!” Alphys said with a smile. Frisk, although looking tired, smiled back and scooted over to give Alphys a better look.

Sans and Frisk didn’t leave the lab for weeks. He made sure the kid ate got some sleep, but he didn’t want to force them to go back home. They hadn’t hurt themself since they started working. Although, that solution didn’t come without its fair share of problems.  
“Sans, just tell me when my child will be home,” Tori said desperately. It was even worse than her anger from the previous day.  
“i dunno, tori. i can barely get them out of the lab to eat. i can try to get you in for another visit,” he suggested.  
“If you can, please.”  
“i’ll get you in as soon as possible. see ya.” he said, hanging up and walking back into the lab. He had to ignore the faint buzzing and the slightly sick feeling that meant Gaster was listening. Papyrus was visiting, and trying very hard to understand what Frisk was talking about. The kid was actually calm for once, not even looking the slightest bit annoyed when Papyrus didn’t understand. He had even managed to get them away from the machine for a plate of spaghetti.  
“-so Sans thinks that he exists _outside_ of reality. Sometimes he gets a hold of things in this world, so all we have to do is strengthen the connection!” they explained.  
Papyrus nodded. “ AH, THAT IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW THAT YOU’VE REMOVED THE SCIENCE WORDS!”  
“having fun?” Sans asked as he sat down.  
“OH YES! THE HUMAN WAS JUST TELLING ME ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH! IT’S CERTAINLY STRANGE! AND CONFUSING!”  
“Don’t worry, Papyrus. Even I’m confused by it,” Frisk sighed, sinking down in their chair a little bit. That gloom that had lined their features recently was returning.  
“don’t worry, kid. we’ll get there,” Sans said, tousling their hair.

“One more time before we turn in for the night,” Frisk sighed as they and Alphys crawled out of the machine. They all slipped on their earmuffs and Frisk signaled for Gaster to try again. They braced themself for the screeching, but it never came. Cautiously, they removed their earmuffs  
"FINALLY. THIS HAS BEEN QUITE TIRESOME."  
“Oh my god, it actually worked,” they said, as if it wasn’t true unless they stated it out loud. Sans and Alphys took off their earmuffs too, just as surprised as Frisk was.  
Sans immediately started talking, but Frisk couldn’t understand a word of it. Maybe they would ask Sans to teach them hands later. "heya, g. sorry about trying to kill you that one time."  
"NO HARM DONE. ALTHOUGH PERHAPS YOU COULD APOLOGIZE IN PERSON?" Gaster replied.  
“Uh, Sans? Alphys and I are a little lost here. Mind translating for us?” Frisk asked.  
Gaster spoke up. "I CAN UNDERSTAND COMIC SANS. FEEL FREE TO USE THAT AND KEEP YOR FRIENDS INFORMED."  
Sans nodded. “we were just catching up. gaster wants to talk in person, though,” he explained.  
“Can we do that yet?” Frisk asked.  
"NO."  
“nope.”  
“Alright. We’re getting closer. This is fine,” Frisk said, almost convincing themselves. They SAVED as discreetly as they could, not sure if Sans could tell when they were doing it. He usually didn’t approve of messing with time now that they were on the surface, but surely he’d make an exception for this?

Sans had trouble sleeping since they fixed the machine. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw things written in distorted hands. The buzzing wouldn’t go away unless he left the lab entirely. Eventually, he just had to stop it.  
“gaster, you gotta stop it. just for a bit. let me sleep...” he said, standing in front of the machine.  
"Ţ̷ha͠͞͠t̶͟ ̛w̶ą̕͘s̨̨̛ ̡n͟ot̡ ̀͝ḿ̶̕é͠,̵͢"̨̡ Gaster replied. "̵T́̀͝h̕e͠͠ ̀v̶o͞i̷̵d̷͟ í̴҉s l̀͜͝e̢ak͡i̧̛ń̵g͏̶͡.̢̀́"  
“ _what_? ” That had to be bad news. What effect would it have on the world? Would it start corroding it, or would the whole of reality just disappear?  
"Aş ̡͜i͘t ̸̧i̶͘s̶ n̶͞o҉͞w,̷͞͡ ̶̵t̴̀h̵e̶͝r̨͢e̕͢ i̷͏̷s͜͞ ͘͠҉n̛o d̀͡͡a̡n̴̴g̕͡ȩ̢r̕.̀͠ ̨̢I͟͝͡n͏ ̶f͜͞ąc͏t,͠ ̸ţ͢h̛͞è ́v͘o̧͝į͠d̴̷͘ ̸̀̕c̸͢͡a͢n̨͝͞ ̴́b̧͞e͏ qu̵҉̶í̸t͢e͜͢͠ ̧͟͠h̕̕͠e͟l͏p̵f͘͟͝u̸l.̕ ̵̀Ẁh͞y̶̛̛ ̨n̷ó̸͠t ́͢l͜͜͝i͟ş͢t̵ę͜n͘ ̨to̢͏͝ ̛̕ẁ̴h͏̵a̶t̵ ͞ì̛t̴ ̧h̶ą͢ş̴ ҉̧͞t͏̧ó ̴͠s̷͏a̴y̧̢?̛͠" Gaster suggested.  
Sans paused. Other than the fact he had no idea what would happen, he couldn’t think of a solid reason not to. But he wouldn’t do it alone, just in case, but he wouldn’t disturb the kid when they had just managed to leave the lab. Instead, he called Alphys. “al, can you make it to the lab today? i wanna try something.”  
“O-Okay, let me j-just... uh... I can b-be there in a-an hour?” Alphys said.  
“alright. see you in an hour,” he said, clicking off his phone. Gaster huffed in annoyance at the delay, but waited patiently enough. Sans tried and failed to nap with his eyes open.  
Alphys arrived exactly one hour after Sans hung up. “W-what’s going o-on?”  
“i’m trying to read something the void’s saying,” Sans explained. Alphys still looked confused. “just wake me if it looks bad.” Without waiting for a reply, Sans closed his eyes. This close to the machine, the thoughts were pretty clear, but fragmented. The only words he could make out were ‘waterfall’, ‘fun’, and ‘door’. But there was something else underneath the words. It wasn’t in hands, but he couldn’t seem to see it properly. He tried to concentrate through the buzzing. The thing started to come into focus. More words, but not in hands. There was ‘fun’ again, but something seemed... wrong about it. He reached out with incorporeal hands and touched it. ‘fun’ changed to ‘Fun’. The buzzing grew louder and Sans felt himself slipping away. But he had to fix one more thing. The buzzing grew to a screech as he changed the number to ‘66’.  
“-ans! Sans!” he heard Alphys calling, snapping him back to reality. “Oh n-no, no, p-please, n-no!”  
“al?” he said. Talking was painful. He took a second to look around. He had fallen off his chair and was lying on the floor. Why was it so dusty?  
“Y-your HP wasn’t g-going d-down, but you w-were... d-dying!” she gasped. “What w-was that?”  
Sans ran a shaky hand over his skull, noticing with a shudder that his bones felt more powdery than usual. “gaster, i thought you said the void wasn’t a danger!” he yelled, trying to sit up. His arms couldn’t hold his weight, and he collapsed back onto the ground. Alphys let out a scared little gasp. Gaster didn’t respond at all, and the buzzing and nausea that usually came with him was gone. “damn, i broke it. Frisk isn’t gonna be happy with me...”  
He saw Alphys pull out her phone and start dialing before he passed out.

"WHAT A FAILURE THIS WAS."

Papyrus sat by Sans’ hospital bed, holding his hand. The doctors had said there was nothing wrong with him, but he still wasn’t waking up. “YOU’RE TAKING THIS ‘LAZYBONES’ THING TOO FAR, SANS.” he sighed. Behind him, the door opened and a nurse showed Frisk into the room.  
“How’s he doing?” they asked.  
“I DON’T KNOW. HE’S STILL ASLEEP.”  
Frisk walked to the other side of Sans’ bed and took his other hand. “Alphys and I looked through his notes, but we couldn’t find anything that would have caused this. But we’ll figure it out, I swear! I’m so sorry. I should have been there...”  
Papyrus reached over and patted their head. “IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.”  
The human started to tear up. “But the project he was working on was for me,” they said. “And even if it wasn’t, I’d still be looking for a way to fix this.” That determination was bright in their eyes, and Papyrus knew right then that he would never convince them to leave it to the doctors.  
“JUST BE CAREFUL.”

Frisk walked straight from the hospital to the bus station. They hadn’t told Toriel where they were going, but they had only been home for one night. She would probably assume they went back to the lab. Instead, they took a bus to Mt Ebbot. It was starting to get dark by the time they arrived, but that was fine. Climbing a mountain in the middle of an especially hot summer day was a recipe for heatstroke, especially with the long-sleeved shirt they had to wear. They didn’t need anyone worrying about them while Sans was in hospital.  
It was almost midnight by the time they reached the barrier. Or, where the barrier used to be. They walked back down the familiar setting, nodding a greeting to any monster that crossed their path, but otherwise just staring at their feet. The Underground was a great place to think, and the best place in the Underground for thinking was Waterfall. But for some reason, it was eerily quiet. Frisk looked up, confused. They didn’t recognise where they were, which was strange. They thought they knew every spot in the Underground, but the hallway they were standing in was completely new. Embedded in the wall, not looking like it really belonged there, was a grey door.  
Frisk took the time to look it over before trying anything. Not counting its sudden appearance and how it didn’t seem to match the surrounding area, it looked like a normal door. With a deep breath, they opened it and looked inside.

"F̑ͩ͢r͝is͛ͤ̒ͣkͩ͋̑͐̚͟.̾͌͂ͭ̐ ͪ̓͋ͣͦ͜F͊̎i͒nͫͥ̓̌́ͭ̚ä́ͯl̶̾l͂̔ͧ͟ẙ̸̓ͬ.ͮ͆̒"


	15. Time Shenanigans (Part 4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me and my stupid thoughts. This story is actually going to be super long, definitely longer than Brothertale. Like, with a double-digit chapter count. And there’s not even going to be that much of the Skelebros in it either, so sorry about that. They’ll be back for the last half of the story though! Also, sorry that this is so short. It just seemed like the right time to end this chapter (that probably should have been tacked onto the last one. Oh well).

Frisk stared, gaping, at the figure before them. It almost looked like a skeleton, but melted like an amalgamate. Taking a deep breath to steady themself, they asked, “Gaster?”

"Y̎͌ͥͣ̕e̓ͧ͋̔̇͐s̶̅ͮ̓̉̑."  
“Do you have any idea what happened to Sans?” They didn’t outright accuse Gaster of causing it, yet.  
"H͏̷e̴͠ ͝r̴͞͞è̵́a̡ch͞e̸̕d̛͜ ̡͡t̸hro҉u͡ģ͞h̢́ ̸th̨́è̷͟ ̴v҉o͏i̡d̴̨̀ ̷̕to̵͘ ́͟ćh͜a̶n͏gé̛ ͘t̵͘͜h̸e ͝u҉̨͞n͠͠í͢͡ve̕r̢҉̡s̸̵ę̕,̷͏͏" Gaster said matter-of-factly. "It̴̷͠ h̵̵̨ás̴ ̕͟t̀͢ą̶̧k̶è͜n̛ ́̀͝a ̷to͢͢ll̡ ͜on hįs̀ ̵̧҉à̕͜lr̶ea̸͠d̶y-̧҉w̡͟͢e͡à̕k ̸̀s͠o̵u҉̷̢l͜"  
“So how do we fix it?” they asked, edging closer. They didn’t step into the strange, grey room, though. Gaster creeped them out.  
He took a second to consider the question. "I̸͞ ̵͜c҉͠͏ou͢ld,̶͘͞ ͝i͟f̷́ ͜͡y͡o̵̡u҉ ͏wę͞͏r͞҉́e͝ ̸̷͟t͞ò̡ ̵́͜b̷̛͢r̀͟i̴̡ņg̵̨ ̶̷́h̀̕i͝m҉ ̴͏͜h̷e̕r̴͞e̡͘.̶͢͜"  
“I can’t. The doctors wouldn’t let Papyrus take him home, so there’s no way they’ll let me move him,” they said.  
Gaster sighed, although it sounded more like a hiss. "T̢͟h͡e̴͝ņ͡ ͟y̢ou ̴w͞i̶l̕͢l̸ ̶h̢͟a̢͠v͜e̢҉ ҉t҉o̷͝ ̧͝fi̧͜͞x͘ wh̢͜a̕͡t̨ h͏e͜ ̨c͡h̶ą̛͘n͢g̕͏͡e̵͞d́.̀͡ ̨̕B̀ư̡͞t̡̨ ̢͏w̸̢͡h̵͞͏a̢̕͏t̡̀e̡v̶̨e͠r͜͢ ͏h͞e͡҉ ̀d̡id̵ ̧͢m̢͢͢a̧̨͏dè̷ ͢t̡͏h̵i̸͘s̵ ҉ŗ̨oom͘͠ ̵͘a͜͞v̨͠a̸̧͠i̸la̢̕͜b̷́̕l͝ȩ̢͢.͝ ̡͜͝O҉̢n̨͝c̸e̷̴ ͞y̡̡͟o̧͟u̷҉̷ ̀͘f͡ix̵͟ ͏̵th͟҉i̸̡n͟g̢s̨̕͡,̧ i҉̸͝t͟ ҉͡i̴ş ̷̀̕li̶ķ̀̀e̶̵̢l̢͞͠y ̕t҉͘͞o͝ ̶͢͝d͠i͞͝s̸̴a҉̛p̕p͘͜e̛a͡r,̧̛ a͟n̡͜d ̧͞w̸͜e҉̢ ̡͝w̨il̢l̷̡ ́͟͞no̸̧̕t̀͞͏ ̀be̴͞ a̛͡b̕͘ļe͝ ̵tǫ ͘m̴ȩe̢̡t̸͡ l̶̴i̵k͞͞e̶͡ ̧t̡his̶.̢́ ͢͜W̸̷̧h͟y n̷̛ot̷ ͏͏t̡͢a͢k̡̢e ͘t̸̛͝h͟is͠ ̨̕o̴͝҉p҉̢p͜o͠r̴t̸u͠͞͞nit̸̶͠y͜͠ ҉t̴͝o̴͜ ̀͟a̧͢s̨̨k ̸m͢ȩ ̶̛͠ab̀o̕͞͝u͜͠t̀҉ ͝͞w̵̨͜h̷a͞҉t̛͘ y͞͝o͝҉u̴ ͞w̨̕a̸̡͠n͘͟t҉ ̸t̵o̴̡ ̢k̵̢no͢͞w?̸̵̕"  
“I don’t really have time. We have no idea what’s happened to Sans, and we don’t know how long he can last like that!” they said. “Alphys said that he started coughing up dust in the lab, so I’m not liking his chances. So tell me how to fix it.”  
"C̷̵hi͘l̛͟͟ḑ͞,̷́ ̛t͟͠i̵m͡͝e̶ ̡́͡m̛͠e͏a̕n͠s҉̡ ̡̢͞n͘͡͠ǫ̛҉ţ̀h͡i҉͜͠n̛͞͞g̶̛̕ ̡i͏̢n͟͞ ́͢t͝h̶̀e͡ ͘͘v͏̀oid͠.̛ ̢S̛t͡ep̴ i̡̧͠ǹsi̸̴̢d͘͜e͡͝.̶̷͡ ҉͡I̢҉ ̴̕c͢͢͠o̷u̧l̵͞d̷̀͞ ̸͜a̢͟n̸̛͘sw͟e̶͟ŕ̛ ̵̡͟y̵͟o͏ù̷r҉̶̀ que̷͟s̴̀͘t͠i̢͢o̧͟͝ń̛͝s҉̴҉ ̵foŗ͏ ̢́̕yea̵͜r̕͟s a̡̕͡ņd̴̨͘ ̷́y̷ou ͏w͏̷̛ó͝ul̡͢ḑ ̵s̷tį͠l͏̶l̴̨ ̧̡͠s̸t̨͝ep̨͢ ̸̀o̷͞u҉̵t̡ m̴̧o͘m̛ȩn͠t͜s͡ ̷a̵͘͞ft́e͜͡r͏ ̴͘y͟o̷͞͠u̶͠͠ ͘en̵͜t̶͠e͝r̀̕èd̸.̧ ̶̕Ì҉ ̸c̶ǫ̨uld͝ ̢ţe̸̛ąc̢h ̵y͝o̸͡ư͠ ͡҉ḩo͠w ̸́́to̸̵͡ ̨ś̶a̵̡v͢͜e͡ ́͡͏S̭͎̺̰̼̜̯͈̝̔ͤ̀ͭͦ̈́̇ã͉͍̬̳̭n̼̜͇̮̭̲̬͇̭ͩ͑̾s̥̫̦̖̘̹̈̄̈́̄ͬͨͪ̅ a̢̨n̛d̡̀͜ ̷t̶͜e̕a̛ć̨h͏̶̧ ͡y̴̧̢ò͟ù ̴̢h̷̛̛ò̵w͏͟͟ ̢͠͞t͞o͏ ͏r̴͜i̡͠d̀͝ ̶y̡̛o͞͡u͟r̸͘s̛͘e̷̡ĺ͘f͜͏ o̷̧͠f͏ ͟tḩąt͏̵͜ ͢p͢a͟͠s̶s̛̕e͡ng̶͘e̵r͘ ͢of y̧͟͠o͢͜u͟r͢s̛҉͟.̕"  
“That sounds... a little too good to be true, honestly. If I go in there, how do I know I’ll be able to go out?” they asked, stepping right up to the threshold of the door, still unwilling to go into the room.  
"Yo̸̴u̷ ̵e͏́xi̶s͞ţ̶͜,̕" he answered simply. "B͠u͡ţ̢ ̸̛͘i̧͝f̨̛ ͏you̡͢͟ ̀wi̶͞s͢͞ḩ̵ f̛o͞r̡ ex̢t͘r̸̕͠à̵ ͘a͢s͏̸s̵̶͞ùrą̵͡n͘͜c͝ȩ͝, l̷e̷a̢̛͢v̢è͏͜ ҉̶s̡͞om̷ȩ̢th̶i͝͡n̸͢͠g͘ ̷͏o̕͢f ̧͞͡y̵̕ǫ͠úr͏̵s̡͘ ̛͞b̷̛e͟͏hin̵̴͠d ̶̴a҉s̢ a̕n͏̕ a͟ņ͢c̶̴̡h͞ơŕ͠.̀͟"  
Frisk didn’t even have to consider what they would leave. They pulled their stick out of their dimensional box. It had been with them all the way through the Underground, and afterward they had kept it as a lucky charm. They drove it into the ground. “Okay, I’m ready,” they said, more for themself than for Gaster. Tentatively, they stepped into the room.  
As soon as they entered, they felt a strange sort of disconnect from the world outside the room, as if they were looking at it through a TV screen instead of an open doorway. They tried to take a deep breath to steady themself, but they realized there was no air in the room. As they tried to breathe, the door slowly closed.  
"Brea͜t͠hi҉ng͏ ̨i̧sn͞'t ̶n̴e̡c̀e̢ss͜a͜ry̢ ͜her̴e," Gaster said before they could panic. Frisk tried to answer, but without air, they couldn’t speak. _And just when I actually wanted to,_ they thought.  
‘So how do I save Sans?’ they signed. They didn’t know if Gaster knew sign language, but it was worth a try. According to him, they had the time to test things now.  
" I d͡o n̸ơt l̸i͠ké t̡o ̶r̡ep̢e̢at͘ m̸yse͟l͜f.͜ ̶I҉ must ͡t͡ea̧çh ́yo̷u t̛o r͝e̡m̨ovę Ch̶ar̀a ͏b̧ef̕ore͞ ̶w͟e͟ ̡r͡ep̶aįr͝ ͟Sa̧n̷s͞, or̶ I͏ c͢a̵nno͝t̴ t̡ea͝c̛h͞ ͜you ̢a͘t a̛ll," he said, starting to go a little spiky with irritation.  
‘Then teach me!’ Frisk signed. Gaster wasn’t the only one getting frustrated.  
Gaster smiled and his eyes lit up, literally. He was a lot creepier with eye lights than without, like some sort of reverse-Sans. "T͝h̶e͢re̛ ͠ar͡e̶ tw̷o ̶m̴ethods ̶of ҉ŗe̡mòving ̀some̴o̶ne̶ fr͞om̴ a͠ t̸ime͝l̷i͡n͏e. ͞The f͢irst ìs m̵y cr̕eat͝i̛on҉,͘ al͝th͟ough͢ ̶that̨ w̢oul̶d̴ ͞r̀e̢q͠uire ̸yo̷u͝ to̧ ͜th͏r͢ow͘ ͟y̧ou͟rsèlf͞ ̶i҉n̛t̸o̸ ҉it, w̴h͘i̕c̶h ͞woưld ̷e̵ras͏e ̡the͜ b̀ot͝h ̨of ̶y̷ou͝.͏ ͢T̛he ̛othe͘r ̡m͡ęt͢hod ̡i͟ş u͟nteşted.̶ I̸t̛'s҉ ̀likel͟y ͞that̡ ͝it ͘w̨oń'̷t̢ ch͜an̵g̵e t́h̶e̸ ̕p͢a͜s͘t͠, ̨but ͟i͟t ̨w̧ìll ͞sto̢p t̨he̡m ̨f̧r͢o̢m̡ ̕c̸òmin͜g̢ b̧a̶c̡k.̵"  
Frisk nodded. “That may actually be preferable. After all, if we change the past then who’s to say we’ll all end up on the surface?”  
"T̛h͠is͜ ͏metho̕d̷ req̧ui͘re̵s t҉w̛o̡ t̕h̴i҉ngs:̷ ̴D̛e̸t̴erm̀ina̶t̸ion ́a̵n̵d̵ ͠L͏O͏VE͡.̕ W҉é hav̶ę ̷e͜n̴ǫu̢gh d̷et҉e͟rmi҉n̷a̢tion,̨ but ̕L͝O̷V̨E i͝s ̡a̧ ͏d̴i͞ffe͟r̡en̵t͟ ͝st̕oŗy͢.͜ ͞Ýou-"  
“I’m not going to kill anybody!” Frisk cut him off.  
"But̡̛ ͜͝ár̷e̷ǹ̀'҉҉t̛͟ ͏̕y̷̡oú̷ ̀͜d͘o͞i̸ng ͟th̸͠i̸̷̢s͟ ̧͝t̵͘o ͜k̕͢il̵l̵͡ ̢҉C̀͟h͜a̛r̢a͜͠?̧"  
Frisk paused. The actually hadn’t ever thought about it that way. They knew that Chara wasn’t just some voice in the back of their head, like they had thought when they first fell into the Underground. They had heard all about Chara and had listened to the tapes in the True Lab. “Th-They’re already dead,” Frisk said, although they knew it was only an excuse the second the words left their mouth.  
Gaster shrugged. "W̛h͞o҉ am I͟ t̡o j͝u̸d̕ge?͢ ͠As̢ ̶I ̡w͘a̛s ̴say͢in̨g̡,͜ ͟yo͝u͝ ҉a̷r͘e̸ n̸ot ͡g͡o͏ing to ̛k̡i͜l͜l ͠a̵n̢y ̴m͢on͠s͟t͜er͠s̸, ͜sǫ ̀I̶ h̷a̴ve͘ fo̵u̷nd͘ a͞ ͞n͡ǫn-l͜et̕h͢a͡l҉ wa͜y of̡ ̶a̡cq͠uíŗi͝n͟g L̨ƠV̀E.͏ Cèrta͡iń ͘ite͠ms͘, w͝h͢eņ a҉sso͟c̡ia͟t͡ed͢ st̛r̶o̵n͢gly ̛e̕nơug͘h w҉it̸h a p͡er̕so͝n, c̴ąn͏ ̴t̛a͟ke͡ ͡o̸ǹ ̴t̷h̕ei͞r ͝ow̶ner͢ c͘h̡aŗa͟c͠te̵ri̸sti͘c҉s.̛ T̸h̴er̷e ͠is̀ a ̀kn͜i҉f͞e̢ ͡which̀ ̨Ch͏a̷r̡a a̡l͝way͜s ́wield͘s ̕to͘ fa̵ce̢ ͠ Sͫ͂̔a͜n̶ͫ͛̐̀̒͑s̢ͤ̈́̓.̢ Iţ ha̡s b̸e͜en͠ ͢soa͝ḱe͘d ̕wi̴th͠ ̸h͞ís De͘t͞ermin̸a͏t̶ion̡, whi͞c̀h̵ ͜h̵as a̕ll͠o͏w̵e͘d̀ i͏t to͟ ca̢rr͝y͟ ̵o͘ver th̸e ̀s҉ma̕l̢l̸ amo͘u̢nt͘s͠ o̵f L̀O͏VE̛ ̢f̨ro̧m͏ ͝e̷ac̨h ́timel͢in͏e.͝ ͏I͘n̵ this̶ ͏ti̡ḿȩl̡in̡e,͟ ͜it ͢i̵s͜ al̴m͜ost ͢a̧s st̛r҉o͞n͜g̵ as̕ C͜haŕa͠ them̶s̨el̀f.͠ ̨It͡ ̴wil̷l̡ do͡ ̢ni͜c̸e̷ly̧ ̨f͞o͟r̵ ou͏r̷ p҉lan.̛"  
“So I’m going to actually travel to another timeline? Will I have to fight Chara?” They would never be able to survive a fight with them.  
"O̸f͞ ̀c͏o͏urs̡e͏ not!͏ I͟ w͡ill̶ ͝send͝ yo͜ų to҉ a̡ p͘oi͏n҉t b͠e͘f͘o͡r͠e ̡t͏h̢e̢y ́re̡ach͘ ͏the ͘kn̵i͢fe͠. ͘All̵ y̨ou̧ ͞wi͜l̸l̡ have ͟t̨o̴ d͏o is ta̛ke҉ ̵it̵ ̛an͞d̕ ̨le̸av̶e͠.͏"  
“Alright then. Let’s get this done,” Frisk said. Gaster waved a hand at the door, his eyes shining blue and orange. There was a sharp click.  
"Thę ҉d́oor̨ ͟w̴ill ͟ńo̕w open to th͡àt ̢time҉l҉ín͢e. ̷I woul̢d͠ ad͞v̷iśe le͝av̷íng͞ ͞ so҉m҉et̶h̡ing ͢her͡é ҉wit̷h͘ ̨me͡ ͜a̷s a̴n̵ot̀he͡r a̸nch̛or."  
Frisk, with some effort, pulled their bandage from their dimensional box. They didn’t want to leave their only other lucky charm behind, but what other choice did they have? Gaster tied it around his hand as Frisk stepped outside. The door vanished behind them. Once they got out of the strange hallway, everything seemed familiar. Frisk slowly made their way to New Home, avoiding everyone. They weren’t used to altering a timeline. Honestly, they much preferred RESETTING to these kinds of Time Shenanigans. Just the thought of all the paradoxes they could cause...  
They made it to New Home without much trouble and sneaked inside. They just had to get to Asriel’s room, that was where the knife always was. But when they opened the door to his room, the boxes that were usually on the floor were missing. _Great,_ they thought, closing the door behind them and sitting on the edge of Chara’s old bed. _What do I do now?_ Before they could decide on a course of action, the door opened. Frisk didn’t have time to hide. Even if they did, they were too shocked to move. Asriel was back! The real Asriel!  
“Oh!” he said, jumping a little. “I thought you... wait, you’re not...” He looked confused for a second before smiling and calling over his shoulder. “Hey, Chara! Did you have a twin?”  
A small kid peeked in. “What? Don’t be silly!” they said. Chara really did look almost exactly like Frisk, other than their rosy cheeks and their huge grin.  
_I think Gaster sent me back a little too far._


	16. Time Shenanigans (Part 5)

Frisk was frozen in place. For once, they didn’t have an excuse. Asriel looked curious, but Frisk was staring at Chara, who was hiding behind Asriel. They looked... scared? That was unexpected.  
“Howdy!” Asriel said, walking in. Chara was right behind him, clinging to his shirt. “I’m Asriel! What’s your name?”  
Frisk tore their eyes away from Chara. “Um, I can’t...” _Amnesia. Whenever you don’t want to explain yourself to a stranger, fake amnesia._ “I can’t remember. I hit my head when I fell down, and I can’t remember anything.”  
“Children, what is this commotion?” asked a familiar voice from the hallway.  
 _There’s Toriel. This is great. Just great! No, okay, I’m fine with this._  
“Are you both alright?” added another.  
 _And Asgore. Perfect._ Both the king and the ex- no, current queen stepped into the room. Both looked surprised, but happy.  
“Oh! Another human child?” Toriel said. “Where did you come from, little one?”  
“They say they don’t remember,” Chara mumbled, not taking their eyes off Frisk.  
“Do not worry,” Asgore said, kneeling next to the bed with a smile and patting Frisk comfortingly. They thought they might get crush by his hand. “It was much the same for Chara when they first arrived. I am sure you will regain your memories in no time.”  
“Until then, I’m gunna call them Kara, because they look so much like Chara!” Asriel said happily, apparently pretty proud of himself. He obviously got his naming skills from his dad, who was congratulating him on the clever idea.  
Toriel walked over to the bed and put a gentle hand on Frisk’s shoulder, healing them. They hadn’t realized how tired they had been until the healing returned their energy. “Thank you,” they said automatically. They looked away, but could imagine the kind, motherly smile on her face. They couldn’t get attached to these versions! Find the knife and get out, that was the goal. Besides, this was before the resets and alternate timelines, so there was a good chance anything they changed would affect their timeline as well. Frisk had just managed to get everyone to the surface, and they wouldn’t risk that for anything.  
Since Asriel was busy talking to Asgore, so Chara had lost their hiding place. They stood uncomfortably in the middle of the room, still watching Frisk. “I-It’s... time for bed,” they said quietly.  
“Oh, Chara is right! Dear child, if you have nowhere else to go, would you like to say here?” Toriel asked Frisk.  
“But that’s my bed!” Chara squeaked. It was the first time they weren’t talking under their breath since they saw Frisk.  
“Of course they won’t take your bed,” Asgore said, picking them up and putting them on his shoulder. “They may sleep on Tori’s chair, as you did before we found you a bed.”  
Frisk didn’t complain. They would sneak out in the middle of the night. There were a few places they could go to re-think their plan.

There was one problem with Frisk’s plan. Toriel’s chair was so comfortable that they actually fell asleep. It was the middle of the night when they woke up and saw Chara standing over them, something glinting in their hand. Frisk leapt off the chair, but was too drowsy to land properly. They looked up, expecting for Chara to be closing in, but they still stood in front of the chair. The only movement they had made was turning to watch Frisk. The glinting object wasn’t a knife. It was the locket, which they were holding onto as if their life depended on it.  
“K-Kara. I-if you try to h-hurt my family, I’m gonna... I’m gonna tell Gerson on you! H-He won’t let you do anything to them!” they said.  
“What? You’re not going to try to kill me?” Frisk asked before they really thought about what they were asking.  
Chara looks offended. “That’s stupid! I’ve been working super hard to make up for being human! I’m not just gonna mess up now!” Frisk was never more upset to have someone not threatening to kill them. They didn’t want to care about Chara. This had to be an act, right? Chara was always fond of sparing people right up until the point where they could stab them in the back. Literally. “I don’t even know why you’d think that!” Chara said. After a second, their face softened, and they seemed sad. “Why _would_ you think that? Did something bad happen to you too?”  
“Ah, well... I don’t remember. Amnesia, you know?” Frisk said with a nervous grin. Chara smiled back. Frisk would have preferred actually being stabbed to how that made them feel.  
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. Oh, I knew how to make it up to you!” Chara said before running back to their room. Frisk got up and dragged themself back to the chair, too tired from the encounter to even consider running away. Chara soon returned with a huge book. “This is my favorite book! It’s a bunch of fairy-tales!” They jumped onto the couch next to Frisk, who flinched, and flipped it open to a random page. “I like to do voices for all the characters, but all of my voices are too loud to do now. But maybe tomorrow morning we’ll do voices!”  
“Why... are you being so nice to me?” Frisk asked.  
Chara looked a little wistful. “Yeah. It’s hard to believe that humans can be nice to each other. That’s why I’m trying to be more like the monsters. They’re always nice to me. I think, if you stay, you’ll really like it here.”  
Frisk was just too surprised, confused, and tired to object as Chara started to read them to sleep.

The next morning, Frisk woke up next to Chara with the book covering both of their laps. Carefully, so as not to disturb Chara, Frisk slipped off the chair and put the book on the table. They didn’t know if Chara had been trying to trick them, but something just didn’t feel right about Frisk’s mission anymore. If it didn’t feel right, then Frisk just wouldn’t go through with it. They could put up with some mood swings and the occasional bad thought. Even if it got to be too much, they could rely on their friends and family to help them.  
Frisk sneaked out, thankful that no-one else was awake, and made their way to Waterfall. They would just have to tell Gaster they didn’t want to get rid of Chara anymore. But when they reached where the strange hallway was meant to be, there was nothing there.  
 _What? No! No, it was right here! I was sure of it!_ Frisk thought, frantically running up and down Waterfall. Eventually, they ended up at the dock. The Riverperson was there, softly humming to themself as usual. Even then, with the panic threatening to choke Frisk, it was oddly soothing. Tired from the late night, early start, and desperate searching, Frisk pulled off their shoes and lay down by the bank, letting their feet dangle in the water.  
“Tra la la. The waters are wild today. That's bad luck...” they sang.  
Frisk laughed bitterly. “You’re telling me.”  
"Tra la la.  Beware of the man who speaks in hands."  
They sighed. “A bit late for that.”  
“Tra la la. Sometimes it’s best to just let things play themselves out.”  
Frisk sat up. “What was that?” In all of the RESETS, they had never heard that one before. But was it advice, or were they just rambling? It was always hard to tell with the Riverperson.  
“Tra la la. Why don't you sing with me? Tra la la.”  
Frisk should have been expecting that. The Riverperson never really said anything plainly. Still, they were quite a good singer. Frisk sung along for a while, letting the melody soothe them. When they were done, Frisk asked for a ride back to Hotland.  
"Tra la la. If it's hot or cold, you can count on me."  
The ride back was rather pleasant.

Frisk, Asriel, and Chara were making cookies. Based on a few firm comments from Toriel before they started, the first buttercup incident had already happened. Frisk hadn’t wanted to make cookies. They were too busy trying to find a way back to Gaster without letting anyone know what they were doing. But Chara and Asriel had insisted, and Frisk allowed themself to be dragged into the kitchen to ease any suspicions they may have had. And now they were covered in flour thanks to Chara.  
“Chara!” Asriel gasped. Chara just giggled as Toriel stepped into the kitchen.  
“Is something the matter, children?” she asked. She paused, then started laughing at the scene in front of her.  
“Wow, As, that was a joke. I didn’t think you’d actually do it!” Chara said, hiding a mischievous grin behind their hand.  
“What? No, I didn’t do it!”  
“Did too!”  
“Did not!”  
“Did too!”  
Frisk cut in. “It was Chara.” They expected Chara to be mad, but they just laughed.  
“Haha, got me. Sorry Mum. I’ll clean it all up,” they said.

Frisk and Chara spent most nights reading in Toriel’s oversized chair until they fell asleep. Frisk woke up expecting to be stabbed, but they never were.

Frisk tried to stay silent whenever Asriel pulled out his camera. The less evidence they left, the better. They were playing truth or dare, and Asriel insisted that Frisk have a turn.  
“Come on, Kara! Just one go! I’ll even turn the camera off!” he whined. Frisk nodded, and Asriel fiddled with the camera a for a second. “Okay, done!”  
Frisk thought for a moment. They didn’t really want to play, but there was one question they needed to ask, even if they didn’t want to hear the answer. “I pick Chara. Truth or Dare?”  
“Dare,” Chara said. They always picked dare, and always managed to complete the dares with enough flourish to that even Mettaton would be impressed.  
Frisk pretended to think about what they would dare Chara to do before saying. “I dare you to answer this next question completely honestly. Why did you climb Mt Ebbot?”  
Chara paused, their usual excitement draining from their face. “You remember where we are?” they asked. Frisk nodded. “So do you remember anything else about the mountain? Like how the humans sealed all the monsters away down here?” Frisk nodded again. “Just checking. That really has nothing to do with the story. Anyway. When I was little, I lived on the surface with my old mum. We were really poor. One time, when she was really drunk, she said ‘I didn’t even want a kid! Now I’ll have to do double the work, which will probably just earn me another mouth to feed!’” Frisk flinched. Neither of the others seemed to realize exactly what Chara’s mother was implying. “Eventually, we got kicked out of the apartment. My old mum couldn’t handle it. She walked me really deep into a big, scary forest. I was tired, and I asked if I could stop and have a nap. She gave me her jacket as a blanket and sung me to sleep. That was the last I saw of her. I walked for as far as I could, and then I tripped on something and fell down here.”  
Frisk nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry to have brought it up.”  
Chara brightened up again. “Hey, no problem. After all,” they did their scary face, “now it’s my turn. So, Kara, truth or dare?”

Frisk had to remind themself that a week passing didn’t mean anything. When they found Gaster he could send them back to their timeline, right when they left it. Then they could help Sans and move on with their life. They had already decided to spare Chara, but it was a bit hard not to take notice when they finally found what they had come to that timeline for.  
“What’s that?” they asked Asriel.  
“Oh, that? It’s mum and dad’s special silver cutlery set. They say they got it as a wedding gift!” he explained happily. He always did things happily, unless Chara was blaming him for another one of their pranks. Their harmless pranks. Why couldn’t they have been malicious pranks?  
It was a magnificent set of cutlery, and the fact that it was made for the king and queen explained why they were so large. The knife was large enough to be a dagger, and they usually used it like one. When Frisk looked at it straight on everything seemed normal, but when they looked at it out of the corner of their eye it seemed to glow a sickly red. They tried to just ignore it and get back to trying to find Gaster.

Chara sat in the middle of the flowers that surrounded Mum and Dad’s thrones. Idly, they picked one of the flowers and spun it in their hands. It had been weeks since it happened, but they were still obsessing over getting Dad sick.

 _Dad wasn’t waking up. At first, they thought that he was just tired. Being king had to be a really hard job. But then they saw how worried Mum was._  
“What was in that pie?” she had asked. Chara listed the ingredients. “What? No, no, no! Child never, ever put buttercups in food! The recipe called for ‘cups of butter’! Oh,Gorey, oh no...” She ran off and called someone. Five minutes later, there was a doctor in the house, and Chara started to realize what was going on. No-one would let them into the room because Dad was sick. Because they had made him sick.  
Monster. No, worse than monster. Monsters are kind and thoughtful and gentle. Chara was a rotten **human**.  
Days later, Dad got back up. He was still really weak and shaky. Asriel ran over and hugged him, crying and saying sorry over and over. Mum sat on the bed next to him, helping him stay upright. Chara stood in the doorway, watching them. They did that. They made Asriel so sad. They made Mum so scared. They made Dad so hurt. Human. Rotten human. They realized they were laughing. Everyone was looking at them funny. It made sense. It made sense for a rotten human to laugh at them.

Chara was too distracted to notice Asriel until they sat right next to them. Kara was nowhere to be seen. They were probably off walking, looking for something like they always were. Kara never hurt any of them. Kara was a much better monster than Chara. Chara was still a human, no matter how hard they tried.  
“Howdy, Chara! Smile for the camera!” he said. Chara managed a smile, just for him. “Ha, this time I got YOU! I left the cap on… ON PURPOSE! Now you’re smiling for noooo reason! Hee hee hee!”  
Chara dropped the smile. “Remember when we hurt Dad?”  
“What?” he asked.  
“When we made him get sick.”  
“Oh, yeah. I remember,” he said, looking sad. “When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter… But we accidentally put in buttercups instead. Yeah! Those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. We made Mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did…” Chara flinched. They were a bad influence. “Um, anyway, where are you going with this?”  
Chara paused. Once they told Asriel the plan, they would have to go through with it. If they showed the slightest bit of hesitation, he would want to back out. “We can’t have it on tape, As. Turn off the camera.”  
“Huh? Turn off the camera…? OK,” he clicked it off and put it aside. “So?”  
“I figured out how to save the monsters,” they said. No going back. No going back. They held up the flower. “I’ll eat some buttercups. When I get sick, Mum will try to get the doctor for me. You’ll have to keep bringing me more buttercups.”  
“What? Chara, how does-”  
“Because then you can take my soul and cross the barrier!” Chara said. It was out there. No going back. “I’ve read about it. I’m gonna be with you the whole time!” Asriel still didn’t say anything. “Please, As. I can’t do it without you.”  
“O-okay...” he said, still looking a little unconvinced.

Chara lay in their bed, staring at the ceiling. It was the only way. The only way to save the monsters and make up for being human. Still, every time Asriel tried to back out they were tempted to as well. It made them mad, which made them yell at him because they were a rotten human and that’s what humans did. They waited until Mum and Dad left with Kara to find a bed before starting.  
“I… I don’t like this idea, Chara,” Asriel said, sniffling. He had his camera with him again. Chara had insisted, just in case he was caught and had to prove that it wasn’t his plan.  
“Are you crying?” they asked. Their voice sounded so mean. They didn’t want to be mean to Asriel, but it felt good. Because they were human.  
“Wh… what? N-no, I’m not…”  
“And why not?” they asked. They had told him over and over.  
“… big kids don’t cry,” he said. “Yeah, you’re right.”  
Chara nodded. “Are you trying to back out? You’re doubting my plan, right?”  
“No! I’d never doubt you, Chara… Never!”  
“Good. We’ve gotta do this. For all the monsters.” They wouldn’t look at Asriel. The could tell he was crying, no matter what he said.  
“Y… yeah! We’ll be strong! We’ll free everyone. I’ll go get the flowers.”

Frisk didn’t manage to find a bed, but they assured Toriel and Asgore that they were fine with sleeping on the chair. It was actually rather comfortable. When they got back, Asriel was standing outside his room, looking terrified. At once, Frisk understood which part of history they were up to. Everything seemed to blur, and everyone’s voices seemed muffled. Toriel and Asgore were asking Asriel what was wrong. He was pointing at the door and telling them something. Everyone ran into the room except Frisk, who waited at the door. They didn’t want to see, but they couldn’t stop themself from looking in.  
Over the last few weeks, they had wondered how this Chara had turned into the ‘demon’ that they knew. This Chara was pretty sweet, if a little bit mischievous, and would never go so far as to kill anyone. But looking at the scene taking place in their room, they remembered something they had read about in school, before they had ever come to Mt Ebbot. ‘After a particularly violent or tragic death, a human’s soul can linger on far longer than usual as an evil spirit. These spirits retain only the slightest hint of their original selves. They wallow in the sadness of their deaths and long to destroy what they perceive to be the cause of their death. These spirits are unable to move on until they are destroyed.’  
Frisk walked out of the room, as if in a dream, and took the knife they had come for. Somehow, they knew that Gaster’s door would be open. They sliced the knife through the air, slicing open reality and creating a shortcut to that unfamiliar hallway in Waterfall. They slammed open the door and marched into the room. Gaster seemed surprised.  
“I’m not going to kill Chara,” Frisk said before he could say anything. “I’m going to _save_ them.”


	17. Time Shenanigans (Part 6)

Gaster was shocked. He was sure, after the human’s first failure to find the door, that they would never be able to return. It certainly wasn’t the plan, so he was quite glad they were back. He would be able to continue the original strategy.  
"A̢nd h́ow d̵o̵ ́you ͠plan ̨t̡o s̨a͜ve t͢he͟m̸?" he asked.  
“If I were to go back there and stop them-”  
"Rea͞l̸ít̵y a̶s w͏e ̷kno͘w͏ ̧it woul͢d͠ crumb͟l̷e, ̀an̸d҉ eve̢r͟y̶o̵ne͜ ̸wou͜ld̴ ̷ _die_. To̡o̸ ma͞n̵y t̢ime̸lines̛ ̶a̴r̶e͜ t͡r̡i͢g̷ǵer͠ed͞ b͏y͡ ̕t͘heir ͟d̡ęat̀h.͠ The effe͞c̀t̀ of̧ ͡c̡h́án̨ging ̕them҉ ̷all͝ ́àt o̧nće̶ c͝oúld ̷er̷ás̴e͘ ̴u̸s ̸al͢l,̡ ͠for͜ever!̡ Fr͢ơm w̷hat I̵ ͝ca͠n ͠see͡ o̵f t͡hi͏s͏ cour͏se͏ ͜of a̴ct̸ion, ̛ev̛en̨ Í a̷m͟ d͜am͝aged͞ ͠by̧ ̡i̶t̨.̕.̵.͟ "  
“There _has_ to be a way!” Frisk snapped.  
" E͘v҉en ̕y͢ou͟ c͡a҉n͡n͝ot̴ ͟u҉ndó ͞tḩi̷s. But ̢yo̷u m̶a̡y ̨b͡e͝ a͜ble ͘to͏ ̴fi̕x͢ i͝t," Gaster said.  
“How?”  
"Th̶e͜y҉ ar̢e͞ ̷n̶ow an͜ evil̡ sp͟ir͟i̧t̢, ̨c̡orr҉ect?͏ ̧T͠h̀e ͟o̷n̨ly w͢ay to ̕sav̸e àn ͢evi͡l͝ spi͡ŗįt̡ is t͘o͢ rel͡e̸a̕se͟ ̢i̴t.̸  
Frisk sighed. “You mean kill it, don’t you? I already told you-”  
"Fi͏n͟e. I h̴a͡d not͢ want̴e͢d ̶to͡ do̷ th̛is. I̛t w̡i̕ll͡ ̀be҉ ra̢the̷r͏ ͜pain̴ful to̸ ̕me͝, ͝b̷ut̨ ̷I ͢çan ͞s̷uḿmo̡n ţh͏em͠ ͡f͝or ̨a mom̕e͜ǹt. Y͞o͜u ̡wi̛ll̢ no̷t ̕hąve̕ l͠o͘n̷g,̧ ́but ͏i͟t wi̡ll b́e lo̧ng ̨eno͡u͝g҉h͟ ̸to͘ as͠k̵ ͡t̀hȩm͠ w͘h͘a̛t҉ the͟y͠ want̶ ḑone̕ wit͡h t͟h̵eìr̶ ͠s̡o͝ul."  
“... So you can summon them, but we can’t save them?” Frisk asked, suspicious.  
"E̢ven ́a m̡om͜e͟ņt̴ w͏il͡l̡ be an ͏eter͘ńit͡y h̨ére. ̷Summo̧nìng͟ them̵ ̕w͘íļl ̢pu͢t͝ ͝ma̶ssi͟vè s̢t͏ra͜in ̴ǫn m͟y̢ so̧u͝l͘.͜ I̧f ̕I ̡w͡e̸r͡e ͡t̨o di͢e f͘r̴om th҉at͢, th͘ey̴ ̷w͏o̷uld͏ di̷e҉ ͘w͏ít̀h̛ m̡e̸.͟ I̕ ͞c͢a̧ǹn̢o͢t́ h̢old͏ ͏t͠h͡em͢ he̸r͢e ̵fo͝r ͠very̡ lo͞n̨ǵ, and ͞t̵h͏ey͜ ̶wi̡l̀l ǹot̵ ͞bę ̷ab͘l͞e͡ ͘t̵o leav̨e."  
Frisk paced for a moment before coming to a decision. “Alright. I’ll talk to them.”  
Gaster focused and searched for a version of Chara from before the buttercups. It took quite a while, but he decided to pull them to the moment that he started searching so that it didn’t take any time at all. Just to save some time, he also gave them Frisk’s memories of their actions as an evil spirit so they wouldn’t have to be filled in.  
“F-Frisk? Where are we?” they asked, stumbling over to them and hugging them tightly. “I remember... I was doing bad things. I was angry. I was so, so angry... Oh god, I tried to kill everyone!”  
Frisk gently patted Chara’s hair. “It’s okay. I’m going to save you, I promise.”  
“But you can’t! I’m... remembering things that haven’t happened yet,” Chara wailed. “If you try to save me, I win. I m-make you k-kill them all. And I _love it_.”  
“Hey! You’re holding on a little tight there,” Frisk said, wincing.  
Chara just giggled and hugged tighter. “I know this is hurting you. And it’s making me happy!”  
“Chara!”  
“You know how to kill me, right?” Chara whispered. “Please. Please do it.”  
“No! I’m going to save you!” Frisk said, pulling away a little bit to look Chara in the eyes.  
“Can’t you see it? There are only two ways this can end now. There are so many different routes, but only two endings. Either I die, or everyone else does.”  
“There’s another way, I know it, I just have to find it!” Frisk said.  
“You can’t save everyone, Frisk. I love that you’re trying, I really do. You’re a better monster than I ever was. But sometimes you need to do the hard thing for everyone else’s sake. Besides, you were right before. I’m already dead,” Chara said with a sad smile. “I killed myself to save the monsters, and I’ll gladly do it again. Actually, it’s even better this time, because I know it’ll work! Well, it will if you go through with it.”  
Frisk sniffled. “When did you get so good at speeches?”  
Chara laughed. “I remember some of your speech training! Really, a lot of the good in me right now is because I’m using your soul. How did you think we were actually talking?”  
“The same way people usually... wait. There’s no air in here. Huh, I guess you’re right.”  
“Yeah, I’m right,” Chara said. “I’m always right! Unless I’m being evil. Don’t listen to me then. So let’s get down to it. I want you to kill me. Maybe afterward, if you really want to find a way to let me live, you can look in alternate timelines or something. Just don’t let me kill them, okay?”  
“I still think I can save you.”  
“You have to kill me first. Promise me!” Chara said. Frisk still wouldn’t speak, so Chara switched tactics. “Remember Sans? Don’t you remember in that second, each time he killed us, that we were glad for it?” Frisk nodded. “Think of that. I’ll try to as well. I don’t want to be an evil spirit. So, do you promise to set me free?” Frisk nodded again, although Gaster could sense that they were lying. That child would try to find a way to save them, even if it meant dying themself. Chara seemed fooled, though.  
They stepped back and turned toward Gaster. “I’m running out of time, right? I can feel it.”  
" C̶o͏r͘rec͘t.̡"  
“Well. Guess I should get going then. Remember, Frisk, you’ve promised me. Don’t let me down!” they said, stepping into the void and fading away.  
"Are yo̷u rèa͜d̵y͞? D̵i͘d҉ yòu b҉r̷i͟ng ̕t͡he̢ knìfe?" Gaster asked Frisk.  
“Yeah,” they answered, standing up as straight as they could.  
"G͞o͏od̡.͏ ̷G͟iv͜e̡ ̕i̛t t͝o m̸e,͢ he said, holding out a hand. Frisk hesitated and muttered something. "E҉x̷c͏use҉ ̶m̧e͞?̸"  
“Just something the Riverperson told me once.”  
_Ah͟. T͘h͟at ͠me̴ddl͘e͘r. Al̡ways̸ ̵trying̵ t͞o ̶war̨n eve̛ryo͜ne. ̧But̵ ̧t͜h̨ey ̢n͜e̵ver̶ ҉l̷ist͡én.̧ I͝ m͟ake ̛su͢r̵e҉ ̢of it̸,_ Gaster thought. " An͝d͞ ͡w͡ha͠t̶ ̸w̧a̧s ͡t̶h́at?"  
Frisk got a far-away look on their face as they tried to remember. They wouldn’t. Gaster had long ago learned how to force people to forget certain facts about him. “It... probably wasn’t important,” they said, handing him the knife. The determination in it burned him, but he still held tight and pulled it through countless timelines. In an instant, it had been with him longer than it had ever been with Chara.  
"T̶̶̨̡h̴͠҉̷e͏͜r̢͘e̡̧̕͜.̧" He handed it back to Frisk.  
“It feels... different. What did you do to it?” they asked, turning it over in their hands.  
"I҉͘t̵͢ ̢̡h́a͜s̢͘ ͝ta̧k̢̕éń͢͞ ̴͟͞o̵n̛͝ ̕͜m̵͘y̸̧̕ ̷͡mo̷̡s̶͝t̸͜͡ ̀de̡̛f̀į́n̷i͏n̨g̶ c̛̀h̀҉̢ąrác͞t̶̡eri͝͠s̛t̢i̸c̢.͏́͠ ̷͡My̴ ̀͟͟c͟͢͟o҉̶͢n̴n̴e̶c͝t̵̡̨į̡͠o̷͏ǹ̛ ͡t͜ò̀ ͝t̨͡h̴̢e̡ ̶̧̀v҉̀o̷id͜.̸  
Frisk looked it over one last time before looking back at Gaster. “So what’s next?”  
"Well, you̸ ͠c͡aņ ha͡rdl̵y kìl̸l C̴har͠a ̛wit́ho͟ut rèmov̛i̢ng ̶them.̧ ̢Ųnl̨e̶ss͏ ͝y̧ou̴'ŗe҉ ͠ẁíl̕lin̢g to ̧sac͝ri҉fice͡ yoùrself.  
“Wait, you could remove Chara the whole time?”  
Gaster shrugged. "Of̧ c̀ou̵r͏se̕.̨ ͢B͜ùt ͝I ͜ ćo͟uld̛ no͝t̡ ̸ k̷eȩp͠ the̷m͘ here ̷wit͝h ̕me͏ f͞or͜ al̷l ͏tim̛ȩ. I̡t w̛ou̸ld ̵ki͝ll t͘he͝ ͠b͢ot͟h͏ ̢of ͡us͠.  
Frisk looks angry for a second before sighing. “Yeah. I don’t want both of you to die. Okay, I’m ready!”  
Gaster reached out and grabbed Frisk’s soul, stretching it out and molding it. Frisk was shuddering in pain. Eventually, Gaster could see Chara. Strangely enough, it wasn’t soul fragments from Chara. They had actually possessed part of Frisk’s soul. Gaster tore it out, not bothering to be gentle. Frisk gasped in pain and fell to their knees.  
Gaster ignored them and considered the fragile bit of soul in his hand. With a thought, he separated it from himself. It started to melt around the soul, fading into the void slightly before regaining its form. It started to grow and change into a copy of Frisk.  
"̳̪̰͚͕H͈̟-̬̦̞H̵̠͙u̥u̝̺̮̝u҉̝̱̫u̼̭̗ụ͍u̹̞̺͎̱̘͙͢r̲̞̖͖̻͔͘t̻̬̲ş͓s̹̻̼͓̟͈.҉̠.̜̥̠͔ͅ.̳̭͙̀ ̧̻̻̰B̼̼̕u-u̫͍̰-̸̝̜͖͉̩̺ͅṳ̯̤̹͚̳͇-͏̹̞̥̦͕̪̥u̘̪̟͈̘-̳͔r̹̫͖̹̺͝r̘̗̲̹͎̹r̡̠n̙͇̦̹̖̺̮n̢͓n̦̯̱̰̼̕n̙s̗̯̙̲͞ș̯͓͖͔̖͚͜.̩̣̝̩͕̩.̫̺̩̠́.̩̺̙̟̠̠͕ ̷̺P̛̗̱̦l̖͚͚̰̦͉e̷̦̫̱̟̺ͅa̩͈sè͔͓̼̪̫̞.͚̟̭͔͙.̲̞̯̣̻̳̣."̠ they said. Their speech was still quite garbled, but it was already getting better. Gaster put a hand on their head, forcing them never to talk about the pain. It wouldn’t do to have people feeling sorry for them. Soon, both Frisk and Chara were back on their feet, staring at each other.  
“Chara?” Frisk asked. They picked up the knife, letting it hang limply in their hand.  
Chara walked slowly toward them, smiling. “Frisk. Thank you. I remember now. You were my friend. You’re going to save me, right?”  
Frisk nodded, tearing up a little. “Just... step a little closer.”  
Chara took the last few steps with a huge grin. Frisk raised the knife slowly, sobbing. The closed their eyes as they brought the knife down and-  
Chara slammed their elbow into Frisk’s face and grabbed the knife. “Hehehe, what an idiot!” they giggled, waving a hand at the door. A broken, glitched click rang through the void and they ran out the door.  
Frisk jumped up, wiping the blood off their face. “Wait!” they yelled as the door closed. They tried to open it, but it was stuck. “No, no, no...!”  
"Y̕o͡ú ͝can͡'͏t ̛follo̸w th͏ęm.̸ Yoù ̷h́ave҉ ҉n̛o ánc҉ho͏r ̵t͏her̶e͘.̶" Gaster explained.  
“Then how the hell did you send me to get the knife?” Frisk yelled.  
"Cha͢ra̶ was̶ your͝ ancho̢r ̢theŕe͡. ̨No̵w th͟at̷ ̵th͡ey ̵hav̀e ͝bee͜n s̷e̴p̶a҉rate̴d fro͘m̀ ̧yo̵u̶r҉ ͘s͡oul, y͟oų ̧w͏ill͝ ha͠v̶e͜ t͘o fi̶n͏d͜ a̴n̕other way.̀""  
“Damn it! At least tell me you can send me back to my timeline,” they demanded.  
"O̸f͟ cour̕se!̡ ̕Y̛ou ̀a̴r̡ę ̴s͟t͢i͢ll͟ ̴a̵nchor̡e͝d ҉th̢e̸re̴.͟  
“Okay. Okay. This is okay.” Frisk took a deep breath and held it for a second. “Teach me how to fix Sans and then get me back there.”  
"B̡oth͞ ͠a̛r͞e͟ ̧sįmpl̴e̛ ͡e̴n͝ơug͜h.͡ ̵Rea͜ch ̡thr͜o͘u̧g̷h ̵t̷o̕ ̢v̵o̢id͠ ̷w̶it̢h͠ ̛yơur sou̵l̵ an̶d ̧c͢ha͠nge it̶ ̵b̀ac̶k͘.͝ Tha̡t͝ ̴shou̢l҉d ͠b͢e̵ i̢n̷stinc̵tua͜l e͘n̴ough͘. Th͘en̕ y͘ou̢ ca̡n s̕i͏mp͞ly w̶ál̶k ͟out the͜ doo̧r.͝  
Frisk looked skeptical, but closed their eyes and did as they were told. Despite his advice being incredibly vague, Frisk managed it easily. Since they were actually standing in the void, it didn’t take a toll on them the way it did for Sans. “Wow. That _was_ simple. I guess I should get going,” they said. As they walked out the door, they turned and smiled at Gaster. “Um... sorry for being kinda snappish. You were helping, after all. So, ah, hang on to that bandage. I’ll come back and see what I can do to help you once I’ve helped Chara.”  
They walked out, letting the door swing closed behind them, and Gaster was once again locked in darkness. ".̷́͘͜͝.̨̧.̴̡̕͜͢ ̷̷͟͝K̸̡̧̕-̡́͜͝͡k̛͡i͜҉d̶̸́.̶̷̶̛̕.̨͏.̷̡̀͠ " He hated how that promise made him feel something. Perhaps a pang of regret? He really shouldn’t have absorbed that version of Underswap Sans. Maybe a few more Underfell Sans-es would balance it out, as well as any Underfell Papyrus-es he could lure in.  
With a wave of his hand, he made Frisk forget their promise to him. As an afterthought, and with some considerable effort since it wasn’t directly related to him, he made them forget their promise to save Chara too. The only promise they would remember was the one to kill them.

Sans woke up feeling cold, despite being carefully tucked into bed. He ached all over as he sat up. His hands actually seemed to be burning.  
“SANS!” Papyrus gasped from next to him, suddenly pulling him into a hug. Sans flinched as the sudden movement brought a new flash of pain through his bones, but hugged him back. Papyrus was crying.  
“hey pap. shhh, shhh... i’m okay,” he asked. Looking around, he saw that he was in a pretty nice hospital room. The first thing he wondered was how many meals he and Pap would have to skip to afford it. The second thing he wondered was how he got there. “hey, uh, what happened?”  
“I DON’T REALLY KNOW! ALL ALPHYS WOULD SAY WAS THAT THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT IN THE LAB!” Papyrus said. “SANS... I KNOW YOU DON’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS WITH ME... AND I NEVER ASKED, BECAUSE I WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND ANYWAY... BUT I NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING DOWN THERE. PLEASE.”  
“... pap... i’m so sorry. i told the kid we’d finish before we told anyone,” Sans said. He felt bad for using the kid as an excuse, but he didn’t want to talk about it, ever.  
Papyrus let out a disappointed sigh and sat back. It cut deep. He took out his phone and started dialing. “WE SHOULD TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU’RE AWAKE. THEY ARE ALL VERY WORRIED.”  
“yeah. how long have i been out?” Sans asked. Papyrus paused before turning his phone to face Sans, showing him the date. “huh. a few weeks... it felt like a lot longer.”  
“YEAH. IT DID.” Papyrus actually sounded bitter. He turned away slightly and focused on his phone.  
“pap, what’s wrong?” Sans asked. Papyrus didn’t answer and turned away a little more. “come on. talk to me.”  
Papyrus fidgeted for a second before saying, “W-WHY SHOULD I? YOU NEVER TALK TO ME! Y-YOU’RE ALWAYS DOWN IN YOUR LAB, AND I’M TOO DUMB TO UNDERSTAND ANY OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING SO YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT IT!”  
“you’re not-”  
“AND WHEN YOU DO COME HOME, YOU JUST DODGE MY QUESTIONS WITH STUPID PUNS! YOU WON’T TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WORK, OR YOUR NIGHTMARES, OR WHY YOU’RE SO SCARED OF THE HUMAN! YOU START SPENDING ALL YOUR TIME IN THE LAB TO WORK ON SOME ‘PROJECT’ THAT YOU WON’T TELL ME ABOUT, SO I TRIED TO TALK TO THE HUMAN BUT THEY KEPT AVOIDING HALF OF MY QUESTIONS TOO! AND WHEN I FINALLY DO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR WORK, IT’S THAT _YOU’RE IN THE HOSPITAL, DYING!_ A-AND I... I JUST CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE... ” Papyrus stood and started to walk out.  
“n-no, wait, pap!” Sans called, getting up to follow him. Or rather, Sans tried to get up and follow him, but his legs wouldn’t move. “pap, please!” Sans didn’t have time to wait for the feeling to return to his legs. He threw himself out of the bed and pulled himself toward the door. Papyrus turned around at the sound.  
“SANS? OH MY GOD, SANS!” he cried, carefully picking Sans up.  
Sans hugged Papyrus as hard as he could. “i’m sorry... i didn’t... i never wanted to make you feel stupid...”  
Papyrus gently placed Sans back on the bed, but Sans wouldn’t let go. He couldn’t let his brother leave, not like that. “SANS. I NEED TO GO TELL SOMEONE YOU’RE UP. AND LET THEM KNOW ABOUT YOUR LEGS. YOU HAVE TO LET ME GO.”  
“i-i can’t... please, don’t leave. please.”  
“I’M COMING RIGHT BACK, SANS. I PROMISE. WE’LL TALK ABOUT THIS LATER.” Papyrus tried to pry Sans’ arms from around him, but Sans held tight. Last time Papyrus had left after a fight, he hadn’t come back. That timeline was one of the hardest he had ever lived through. Realizing that Sans wasn’t going to let go anytime soon, Papyrus hit the ‘call nurse’ button and picked Sans up again, shifting around until they were both sitting comfortably on the bed.

Sans had been convinced to let go of Papyrus by the time everyone visited, but he still got nervous every time it looked like he was going to leave. After the initial explosion of noise, everyone was quiet and solemn. Toriel had it the worst. She spent her time at the back of the room, constantly checking her phone. The only sound was the quiet crackle of Grillby’s flame as he leaned against the wall.  
“So...” Undyne said after a while. It was just like her to be the first to break the silence. “You can’t move your legs at all, huh?” And just like her to get straight to the point.  
“heh, nope. but it gives me a lot more material now. i think you’ll all get a _kick_ out of it. ” No-one even groaned. They just looked kinda sad. “yeah, that one was a little _lame_ , wasn’t it? It’s okay to boo if you’re offended. i take that sort of thing _in my stride_. ”  
“Hah. Gives you an excuse to be more of a lazy jerk now, right?” she said with a small smile. At least someone was cheering up.  
“i’m definitely going to _kick back_ for a while and _put my feet up_. ”  
“No WAY am I letting you get away with this! Come on Alphys! We’re making an exercise regime that’ll fix his legs for good!” Undyne yelled, grabbing Alphys and running out of the room.  
“B-but Undyne, t-they already h-have people w-working on one of t-those!” Alphys protested.  
“Then show me where they are so I can MAKE IT MORE EXTREME! That lazybones needs some INTENSIVE TRAINING to get him back on his feet!” Undyne replied.  
Sans looked around at the once-again-quiet room. Only Papyrus, Toriel, Asgore, and Grillby remained. Toriel checked her phone again. Asgore looked nervous and much too large for the room. Grillby looked as calm as always, but Sans knew from experience that was a concerned crackling. And Papyrus... just looked tired. Sans wasn’t used to seeing his brother like that. It seemed _wrong_ somehow.  
Papyrus’ got a text. He pulled it out and stared at it, not really reading it the first time he looked. He blinked, rubbing his eyes and reading it again. Suddenly he got up and Sans panicked, pulling himself closer. Papyrus patted his skull to comfort him, but didn’t look his way. “ LADY TORIEL! IT IS FRISK!”  
Toriel practically lunged toward the phone. “My child!” she shouted, grabbing it and reading the text.  
“what’s up with the kid?” Sans quietly asked Papyrus as Toriel gave him his phone back and dialed Frisk on hers.  
“AH. NO-ONE TOLD YOU? FRISK HAS BEEN MISSING FOR TWO DAYS. THE LAST ANYONE HEARD FROM THEM, THEY WERE GOING TO TRY TO FIND A WAY TO HELP YOU,” Papyrus said, less quietly.  
“My child, where are you?” Toriel asked, practically in tears. “Waterfall? That is such a long way! How did you get there all by yourself? ... No, I am in the hospital. ... Yes, he has just woken up. ... No! You may not speak with him! I am going to pick you up right now, and we are going right back home! ... Do not talk back to me! ... Because every time you two get an idea in your heads, I do not see you for days! Then Sans becomes hospitalized, and you just go missing! ... You must tell me where you’re going when you leave the house! And be back by nightfall! ... You cannot stay there because you will not be working there anymore! ... Of course I have the authority to do that! I am your legal guardian, not Sans or Papyrus! I am the one that must be concerned for your safety! ... We will discuss this at home!” Toriel hung up and glared at Sans. “My child is not to work with you anymore. If you even see them on the street, you go the other way. And if I catch you with them again, your legs will not be the only things that are broken.” With that, she walked out. Asgore went to follow her, but wisely stayed a few steps behind. Before leaving, he gave Sans a get-well-soon card attached to a bunch of flowers that he probably grew himself.  
Once he was sure they were gone. Grillby pushed off the wall and walked over. He always waited for the room to be mostly clear before he started talking. That was why Sans used to like hanging out at the bar after closing time.  
“I almost didn’t believe it when I heard,” he said. “I didn’t this could happen to monsters.”  
“me neither. i guess we _stand_ corrected. hey, isn’t this work hours for you? ”  
Grillby chuckled at the pun. “I got someone to fill in for me. It’s pretty good having staff for once. Anyway, I think we’ll be closed for a while. I’m thinking of doing some renovations to make the bar more wheelchair accessible.”  
“heheh. nice to know something good happened because of this mess. i’m sure that’ll make a lot of customers happy,” Sans said.  
He stalled for as long as he could, keeping Grillby talking about all kinds of things. He asked about the renovations, the meals, the customers, he cracked jokes, he laughed at Grillby’s attempts at puns. Eventually, he saw Papyrus fall asleep in his chair. Grillby noticed him glancing over at his brother and realized almost immediately what Sans was doing.  
“So what are you hiding from him this time?” he asked. It was a pretty blunt question, especially for Grillby. Sans knew if he just didn’t answer, Grillby would drop the question like he always did. It was a habit Grillby had picked up from his years of bartending. But... he had to talk to someone. He couldn’t talk to Papyrus without telling him what he had done in that hallway, how many times he had killed the kid and how many times the kid killed him. He couldn’t talk to Tori because she didn’t seem to be able to stand to be around him anymore. Asgore had some awareness of the RESETS, but Sans couldn’t bear to tell him what had happened to his kid. Alphys would understand, but she was already a nervous wreck and he didn’t want to add to that. Undyne either wouldn’t believe him, wouldn’t understand, or wouldn’t shut up about it. He was banned from talking to the kid. He didn’t have anywhere else to turn. So Sans started to tell him everything. It was a long talk, but Grillby was a good listener. Sans told him about the RESETS, the Judgement Hall, the kid, Chara, his work, everything. Sans even told him about everything Papyrus had said earlier. There was a long silence when he finished speaking.  
“sorry,” he said after a while. “that must have sounded crazy."  
“Crazy or not, it’s landed you in the hospital,” Grillby said, leaning against the wall closest to Sans’ bed.  
“wait... there is one thing i have that might convince you it’s real,” Sans said, reaching into his dimensional box. It took a lot more effort than it should have, but he managed to grab a small recording device. “i like to keep something from each of my friends, just in case...” With a grin, he played the recording.  
Sans had known for a while that Grillby had little to no filter. Whatever he thought, he said. It was a result of having barely anyone in the Underground speak flame. An amusing side-effect of that was his habit of narrating his actions, rather dramatically in fact. To everyone else, it was a quiet crackling noise, but to Sans, it was one of the funniest things he had ever heard in his life. Which was probably why whenever Sans was around, Grillby only spoke if it was absolutely necessary. One time Sans saw him taking a walk, narrating as usual, and couldn’t resist the urge to follow him for a bit and record it. Later, he had played it as ‘romantic ambiance’ on one of the Dogi’s frequent dates at Grillby’s. He was banned from the bar for a whole day for that.  
Grillby blushed as the recording played, his flame turning slightly blue with the intensity of the heat he was holding in. He was about to speak, but Sans held up a finger for silence. Grillby needed to hear the next part.  
_“-the flame picked carefully through the snow, knowing that it could turn to painful water at any- Ah! Sans! You’ve been recording me this whole time?”_  
“ yup.”  
“Why?! ... A SHRUG IS NOT AN ANSWER, SANS! Give that here!”  
There was the sound of a small, relatively friendly scuffle before the recording cut out. Grillby hid his blush in his hands for a moment, trying to regain his composure. “That was certainly my voice, but I don’t remember that. When did you record it?”  
“years ago. i can’t remember how many resets it’s been since then,” Sans admitted. He watched Grillby carefully for any sign that it was all getting too much, but he seemed to be taking it rather well.  
“... So it is real. Then I only have one more question. Why tell me and not Papyrus?  
Sans flinched. “you were listening when i told you how many times i had let everyone die, right? and how many times i killed the kid? i can’t tell him about that. and i don’t want him counting down the days to another reset. it kills me to wake up every morning and wonder if today is the day some kid decides to steal all of this away from us, and i don’t want pap to have to go through that.”  
Grillby shrugged. “Do you want my advice?” Sans was taken aback. He was so used to having to figure things out on his own. With a small smile, he nodded. “You should tell him. Even if you can’t tell him all of it at once, you should confess as much as you can. And remember, he’s your brother. He loves you, and nothing you do can change that. Just talk to each other. You both need it.”  
Sans thought about it for a second. It had never occurred to him that he could explain in parts. It wouldn’t make much sense like that, but maybe it would be better than nothing. Just saying what he needed to get off his chest, not telling Papyrus everything, but just enough to make him feel trusted again... It was a nice thought. He just had to figure out what he could and couldn’t say. “heheh. thanks.”  
“Don’t mention it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m dying for a smoke, so I have to leave the hospital. Oh, and before I go, I almost forgot to tell you. Make sure to thank Asgore for paying for your room,” Grillby said before slipping out the door.  
Sans was touched. He didn’t think he and Asgore were really close enough for him to be paying for something like this. Sans pulled out his little-used phone and turned it on, relieved that it still had power, and texted Asgore a thank you. Sans would thank him again, properly, next time they ran into each other.  
Heheh. _Ran_ into each other. Sans looked down at his legs. The rush of people and conversations had distracted him, but in the back of his mind, he had been uncomfortably aware of the numbness in his legs. No, worse than numbness. Usually, when something was numb, he could still feel that it was there. This time, if he wasn’t looking at them, he could hardly believe he had legs at all. He detached one of them to give it a closer look. Nothing seemed wrong with it. It should have been working fine. For a moment, Sans felt like flinging the limp, useless thing at the wall and watching it shatter. The thought of destroying something, even if it was a part of him, brought him a strange, savage happiness. But that would worry Papyrus. Instead, he re-attached it, glad to hear it click into place. It took a lot more effort than normal, and he still couldn’t feel it, but it was definitely attached. That was a good sign. If he could just figure out what happened to him, maybe he could fix it. He chose to ignore how much he doubted that thought. It could wait until the morning. Reaching over and taking one of Papyrus’ hands, Sans lay down and drifted off to sleep.  
_everything can wait until the morning._


	18. Time Shenanigans (Part 7)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *A wild Frisk appears! Followed by Sans and Papyrus!*  
> FRISK: Hey there. The author kind of got broken by some stuff going on at Tumblr, so we're going to have to do these start-and-end notes for a while.

Sans hadn’t expected to ever get tired of staying in bed, but after two full weeks in the hospital, he was starting to get restless. It didn’t help that he spent a lot of his time alone. He channel-surfed the TV on the wall, but that got boring fast. He ran out of reading material pretty quickly. Whenever he got the chance he read the doctor’s reports on his condition, although he only caught bits of it. He didn’t know if he was allowed to be reading them, so he never asked about them. Sometimes he caught himself just staring blankly at the wall, letting his thoughts wander. He could never remember what he was thinking about once he snapped out of it, but he always felt unsettled afterward. Sometimes he was halfway through a thought when he realized that he was talking to himself. Was he seriously going crazy after only two weeks? He wasn’t even isolated the whole time. He had visitors.  
Papyrus still visited regularly, but it was different from the other times Sans had been sick, where Papyrus refused to leave his side. It was selfish to expect that, though. Besides, when he did visit it was always awkward. Sans still hadn’t figured out what he wanted to tell his brother, so they spent most of their time either making small talk or sitting in silence. Papyrus always left looking disappointed.  
He still hadn’t seen Frisk, although he didn’t they were staying away by choice.  
Toriel wouldn’t respond to any of his messages.  
Alphys and Undyne came by whenever a nurse or doctor was checking his legs. Those visits were nice enough, and Undyne’s energy distracted him from the lack of progress. One day, Undyne stopped visiting. Alphys said that she had come home from one of her training sessions with Pap in a rage and declared she wouldn’t be visiting anymore. Sans had expected that.  
Asgore only visited once to respond to his text, since he couldn’t figure out how to send messages on his new phone.  
Grillby’s visits were actually one of the few purely good parts of his day. Sometimes they would chat. Sometimes they would just sit together in silence, a much nicer silence than the one between himself and Papyrus, enjoying each other’s company. But Grillby didn’t get much time off work, so his visits were few and far between.  
It was during one of Papyrus’ visits that he finally managed to get out of the room.  
“SANS...” Papyrus sounded worried about him instead of disappointed, which was unusual. He took Sans’ unused wheelchair from the corner and wheeled it over to the bed. “THEY SAID WE COULD TALK OUTSIDE IF YOU WANT.”  
“sure,” Sans said with a smile. Despite how uncomfortable things had been between himself and Pap, the smile was completely genuine. He scooted to the edge of the bed and tried to think through how to move from there to the chair. He almost fell off the bed when he tried. Luckily, Papyrus was there to catch him. “thanks, bro.”  
Papyrus smiled a real, if slightly tired-looking smile and helped Sans into the wheelchair. “WHEN IT WAS CLEAR YOUR LEGS WOULD BE LIKE THIS FOR A WHILE, I ASKED THE DOCTORS WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS WRONG,” Papyrus said as he wheeled Sans over to the elevator. “THEY DIDN’T HAVE MANY ANSWERS, SINCE THEY HAD NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN TO A MONSTER BEFORE, BUT ONE OF THE NURSES SAID THAT IT WAS VERY MUCH LIKE A HUMAN CONDITION CALLED ‘PARAPLEGIA’. I HAVE ‘GOOGLED’ IT AND FOUND MANY WAYS TO HELP YOU ADJUST ONCE YOU ARE LET OUT OF HERE!” Papyrus faltered at the end.  
“hey, don’t worry. i’ll be discharged eventually,” Sans said, reaching up behind him to pat Papyrus’ hand. Papyrus wouldn’t look directly at him, but nodded.  
They made their way to an open courtyard. There were neatly trimmed gardens lining the path, and the air was fresh. It smelled like it would rain later. The courtyard reminded him of what he loved about the surface. For a second, he felt exactly the same as he did when he first saw the surface. They stopped next to a park bench and Papyrus sat down.  
“hey pap?” Sans said after a while. Papyrus turned to look at him. “i t-think... i’m ready to talk about it. some of it, anyway.”  
Papyrus beamed. “THAT’S WONDERFUL!”  
Sans took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. He kept his eyes there, not wanting to look at Papyrus’ reaction to the information. “the kid told you about gaster, right? how he doesn’t really exist, even though he’s still around?”  
“INDEED! IT WAS MIGHTY PERPLEXING!”  
“yeah, it is. but this gaster guy, he’s got something to do with the two of us. i thought i could trust him, because he helped me once... do you remember when you were little and we lived in the lab? And then you got sick, and we moved to snowdin?”  
“WELL, I REMEBER LIVING IN THE LAB. AND I REMEMBER WAKING UP IN SNOWDIN. BUT I CAN’T REMEMBER... BEING... SICK...?” The uncertainty in Papyrus’ voice made Sans pause and look over at his brother for a moment. Papyrus was staring at the ground, looking confused. “WAS THAT... WHEN THE NIGHTMARES STARTED?”  
Sans thought about that for a bit. It was so long ago, but he couldn’t remember any ‘nightmares’ before then. Now that he thought of it, that wasn’t the only thing that changed after that. He had never known hands before the first Gaster incident. Was it only him, though? Or could Papyrus understand as well? “yeah, i think so,” he said in hands, watching Papyrus closely for any traces of confusion. He seemed to understand it perfectly, as if he didn’t even realize Sans had switched languages. That could be useful, even if it was slightly worrying. He continued to speak in hands, just so anyone walking by wouldn’t be able to understand. Especially since he was getting to the secret parts of the story. The parts he was dreading. “about the nightmares, pap... they’re not just nightmares.” Papyrus looked shocked. “they’re all different timelines. basically, we’ve lived through all of those nightmares before, but in real life. then we get sent back a bit and live it again, but usually differently. we can’t remember the other timeline normally, but somehow we’re remembering them in our dreams.”  
Sans didn’t look away quickly enough to miss Papyrus’ reaction. Pap put a shaky hand to his chest where the kid had hit him each time they decided to kill him. “N-NO! THEY CAN’T BE REAL, BECAUSE THE HUMAN WOULD NEVER DO THAT!”  
For a few seconds, Sans was too stunned to respond. He knew Papyrus could _understand_ hands, but he had no idea that he would be able to speak it so fluently. He might have slipped into speaking hands without even realizing it, which could be a problem. If that was the case, would Papyrus be able to _stop_ speaking hands? Maybe it would be better is Sans stuck to English around Papyrus, just in case. But he could think about that later, because Papyrus was starting to freak out. “ that wasn’t the kid! it was... a different human. sometimes it’s a thing that looks like them, but isn’t. but now that we’re all up here, frisk promised that we’re not going back again. time’s just going to keep moving forward. they promised.”  
“OH. THEN I SUPPOSE IT’S NOT A PROBLEM ANYMORE?” Papyrus asked, and Sans was relieved to hear him switch back to his regular font.  
“shouldn’t be. i was working to make sure that other thing doesn’t try to come back, but along the way i think i messed with something i shouldn’t have. it was like i could see how the whole universe was built, and i could change whatever i wanted!” Sans reached toward the sky, as if that somehow illustrated his point, before letting his hand fall back into his lap. “but... i guess that sorta thing doesn’t come without consequences.”  
“THAT’S... A LOT OF STUFF TO THINK ABOUT,” Papyrus said. “BUT I AM GLAD YOU’VE TOLD ME ABOUT IT!”  
And like that, everything was back to normal again. Papyrus was smiling down at Sans, and that unnatural tension between them vanished. Sans hadn’t told him everything yet, but it had been enough. Sans grinned back, and just then it started to rain. It was going to be a good day.

Papyrus started staying overnight again. He felt bad for staying away for so long, especially with what the doctors had told him about Sans. They were ‘seriously concerned for his psychological condition’. Apparently, he had been staring into space and talking to himself. Papyrus felt bad for not noticing, but they said Sans always seemed better during visits, especially visits from Papyrus or Grillby. If being with him made Sans better, Papyrus wouldn’t leave his side. He would be his cheerful self and help any way he could. Even if it was hard to stay cheerful with everything that had happened.  
Besides talking to himself, which was really quite worrying, there were Sans’ legs. He had kept calm about it the best he could, waiting until Sans was asleep to show exactly how terrified he was. He had no idea what happened or how to fix it, or even if it could be fixed. Sometimes in the middle of the night, he had to leave the room and find some sort of lonely corner to curl up in a ball as he just tried to deal with everything.  
The scariest thing was, other than those late-night moments, it was already starting to feel normal. He and Sans already had a routine. In the morning, Papyrus would get breakfast for himself and Sans from the canteen and bring it back to Sans’ room. Then they would go for a walk around the gardens. Papyrus would leave for work at the restaurant, and sometimes his friends would have lunch there, making sure to time it to his breaks so they could catch up. There was still no sign of the human, though. After work, Papyrus would go back to the hospital and stay with Sans. He had brought a book of puzzles, riddles, and jokes that they worked on together some nights. Other nights they would just talk. After that first day in the gardens, Sans hadn’t told him anything else about the RESETS or the other human, but Papyrus was just happy that Sans trusted him enough to say what he had. He could wait for the rest.  
Soon, there was another thing added to the routine. Weekly therapist visits. Apparently, Sans was required to attend them until the doctors though he was ready to leave. Sans did _attend_ , but apparently, he never talked about what was really bothering him. Which was understandable. While Papyrus had believed everything Sans told him, he knew how crazy it sounded. Papyrus usually waited outside during the sessions, but occasionally the therapist would call him in to try to get Sans to talk. Papyrus didn’t like when that happened, since it made it painfully obvious to him exactly what his brother did when he was trying to avoid a question, and he could hardly believe how long he had missed those signs for.  
Although Sans never talked during the therapy, it was still helping him. Often, they would both remember the questions and talk about it during their walks. Sans seemed a lot more comfortable just talking to Papyrus in the garden rather than talking to the therapist in their stuffy little room. He expected Sans to stop talking or change the subject whenever someone passed by, but he just kept on talking. Papyrus thought it was great progress, even if it was a little strange for Sans to be so open, until one of the nurses talked to him about it.  
“Oh, you’re Sans’ brother. Papyrus, right?” he asked, stopping Papyrus in the hall one afternoon.  
“AH, YOU HAVE HEARD OF ME, HUMAN? YES, IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”  
The nurse chuckled. “Great is right. He’s been a lot better now that you’ve started visiting more often,” he said. “I hope this isn’t too much of a personal question, but I’ve taken an interest in his case. It would really help me out if you could tell me what language that is you two speak when you’re in the gardens.” That was puzzling. As far as Papyrus knew, they only spoke the one language. Evidentially, the nurse saw how confused he was. “Oh, hey, don’t worry about it. That was probably a bit insensitive of me to ask, wasn’t it? Haha, Doctor K is always telling me to work on my manners! Anyway, I’m sure your brother’s waiting for you, so I’ll let you go. But hey, make sure to look after yourself too!”  
The nurse waved goodbye as he left. Papyrus waved back, but it was lacking his usual enthusiasm. He was busy trying to figure out what that nurse had meant. With a sigh, he figured it was best to just ask Sans and see if he got an answer.  
He didn’t ask right away, instead deciding to wait until they were finished with puzzles. When it got to that point, he almost didn’t want to bring it up for fear that it would ruin the good time they were having. But Sans would never tell him anything unless he asked.  
“SANS, ONE OF THE NURSES SAID SOMETHING STRANGE TODAY,” he said. Sans seemed curious rather than avoidant, so he continued. “HE SAID THAT WE WERE SPEAKING SOME OTHER LANGUAGE WHILE IN THE GARDENS, BUT I ONLY RECALL KNOWING THE ONE LANGUAGE.”  
Sans sighed and got _that look_ in his eyes for a moment, and Papyrus was sure he’d dodge the question or flat-out say that he didn’t want to talk about it. But then he looked Papyrus dead in the eyes and said, “ you do speak more than one, pap. this is hands. we’ve been able to speak it ever since that first time we met gaster.”  
Papyrus nodded. There had been some strange effects after he gotten ~~those nightmares~~ ~~visions of alternate timelines~~ sick. He supposed this was one of them. “ AND I SIMPLY SPEAK THIS ‘HANDS’ WITHOUGHT REALIZING?” If he listened closely, he could hear something strange underneath his words, like an accent or echo.  
“you’re doing it right now”  
Papyrus was... actually surprisingly pleased. He realized that Sans had been more open with him precisely because of this language. It must have been comforting for Sans, knowing he could speak without worrying about being overheard. Papyrus tried to say something else in hands, but he could actually think of how it was supposed to sound. Sans said something, but it sounded like a garbled mess. Papyrus was devastated. Had he really lost this ability the moment he found out about it?  
Sans noticed Papyrus was having trouble and stopped speaking hands. “hey pap, try not to focus on it. things always seem to work better for you when you just kinda _do_ them, instead of trying to think it out. ” The advice made sense, in a way. “any better?”  
“YES, MUCH BETTER!” He could hear that accent again, but he didn’t focus on it. They talked for a bit, only using hands when they needed to, before a nurse, although not the one from earlier, came by and recommended that he let Sans get some sleep. As usual, they fell asleep hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans: heheh. hey pap, isn't it weird how i have to think through this magic stuff and you have to make an effort not to try so hard with it?  
> Papyrus: HM, THAT IS TRUE! HOW STRANGE...


	19. Time Shenanigans (Part 8)

Sans was pretty sure he knew why he was still in the hospital. The doctors didn’t seem worried about his physical state, although some were curious as to how a monster, especially one with only 1 HP, could become disabled without simply turning to dust. But really, what they seemed most concerned about was his mental state. When they started making him go to therapy, they confirmed his theory.  
He didn’t blame them, really, but that didn’t stop it from being annoying. Sans had to be sure not to let himself get lost in his thoughts, or he would start talking to himself again. But with Papyrus there, he could do that easily. Even after Papyrus left for work, Sans focused on the books that Pap had brought him. He knew he would never get out of that hospital if he didn’t appear ‘sane’, so he made the effort. Honestly, he was pretty sure he wasn’t going mad. It was mostly likely another side effect of whatever he had done to the universe. Not that he could mention that, or they would really think he was insane, especially since whatever he had done didn’t seem to have changed anything except himself. He had to count himself lucky for that, though. Weeks later, and he was finally allowed to be released from the hospital.  
The minute Papyrus bounded into the room, Sans could tell what he was going to say. "SANS, READY YOUR THINGS! TODAY IS THE DAY YOU MAY RETURN HOME!”  
“woah, really? that’s great, bro!” Sans said, putting his book aside and grinning up at Papyrus. While Sans moved himself from the bed to his wheelchair, Papyrus rushed around the room like a skeletal tornado, packing all of Sans’ belongings. “you want any help with that?”  
“NO NEED!” Papyrus said, already done. There was a bit of paperwork and a final check-up to complete, but eventually Sans was out of the hospital, finally! He could actually feel his soul pulsing with excitement as Papyrus wheeled him out of those sliding doors. There was a river across the road, and both brothers decided at the same time they wanted to travel right next to it. They crossed, and Sans couldn’t help laughing with joy as he watched the sunlight dancing off the water. Papyrus joined in, delighted that Sans was enjoying himself. Getting a little caught up in the moment, Sans used blue magic to pull Papyrus onto his lap and push his chair along the riverside as fast as he could. Far from complaining, as Sans expected, Papyrus cheered. The air whipped past them as they rushed back home.

Even though he didn’t actually need to breathe, Papyrus still felt breathless when they reached their house. It had been a while since he had felt that kind of pure, untainted joy, and it made him a little shaky as he stood. But it felt good, like the high that came with running out of magic, but this time he wasn’t too tired to enjoy it. Inside was just like their home was back in Snowdin. Or, it used to be, but Papyrus had gotten some renovations done in light of Sans’ condition.  
“... where did the stairs go?” Sans asked, staring at their new elevator. He looked a bit upset.  
“WELL... YOU CAN’T REALLY GET UP STAIRS RIGHT NOW. SO I REPLACED THEM.” As much as the sudden mood whiplash annoyed him, he could understand Sans’ reaction. The first time Papyrus saw the newly installed elevator, he realised that he had already given up on fixing Sans’ legs and had moved on to figuring out how they would manage. He hoped Sans wouldn’t be insulted by that.  
Sans took a deep breath. “pap, it’s... it’s great, really, i love that you thought of that, but... well, we’re not exactly rolling in the dough right now.” Papyrus was confused for a moment. What did dough have to do with anything? Then he remembered it was human slang for money.  
“OH! NOT TO WORRY! I USED A PORTION OF MY SAVINGS!” Papyrus said. Sans seemed about to complain, but Papyrus cut him off. “SINCE WE MOVED TO THE SURFACE, YOU HAVE ALWAYS INSITED ON PAYING FOR FOOD, WATER, ELECTRICITY, AND UPKEEP ON THE HOUSE. THIS IS THE LEAST I COULD DO.”  
“but bro, aren’t you saving up for a car?” Sans asked, wringing his hands.  
“ **SANS, YOU WILL NOT MAKE YOURSELF FEEL GUILTY OVER THIS,** ” Papyrus said. Sans looked shocked. It was rare that Papyrus simply shut down an argument, and even rarer that he used his ‘serious voice’. He dropped back down to a gentler tone. “I _WANTED_ TO DO IT FOR YOU. ”  
Sans nodded, but his smile was a little tight at the corners. Still, pushing it wouldn’t help, so Papyrus went to make Sans something to eat. For a moment, he considered trying to show off what he had learned at the restaurant, but eventually decided to stick to something familiar, like spaghetti. Although, he could still show off a little bit. For example, he now knew to take the spaghetti out of the box before cooking it.

A week passed relatively uneventfully. Sans had gotten time off work due to the accident, Papyrus was using his carer’s days to stay at home with him, and everyone else seemed to be trying to give Sans some space. Everyone including Frisk, although that was still probably not by choice. He did get a visit from Alphys and Undyne though. Alphys seemed to be trying to get Undyne to apologise. Even though she wasn’t mad at him anymore, Sans knew she wasn’t going to apologise, mostly because she hadn’t really done anything wrong.  
Sans tried to remind himself that he hadn’t done anything wrong either. Normally, he wouldn’t have even considered that, but he couldn’t get what Papyrus said out of his head. Pap was right. Sans did more than just feel guilty. He looked at things, picked out what was wrong with them, and then blamed himself for it. If he didn’t feel guilty, he _made_ himself feel guilty. Papyrus picked him up on it a few times over the week, although he was always pretty gentle about it. He didn’t use his ‘serious voice’ again, but he didn’t really have to after that first time. It had shocked Sans into listening, and actually trying to fix it. After all, things _could_ change now that the kid wasn’t going to RESET. The thought gave him a little bit of hope.  
Once the week passed, Sans actually felt confident for the first time in a while. If he could still saunter, he would have sauntered into the lab. Frisk wasn’t there, but he hardly expected that. At least Alphys was there. They settled back into an easy rhythm of experimenting solo and together when they felt like it, asking each other for their opinions on notes and theories, and sometimes just completely geeking out. And despite the fact that he didn’t really get anywhere with his research, he was honestly happy.  
Almost a month passed by like that, and every day he just got more hopeful. For once there was nothing in his life that actually upset him, besides the stab of terror every morning reminding him of everything he had been through to earn his happiness. He could deal with the occasional nightmare, especially since they were starting to get less frequent. He regretted the rift that had formed between himself and Toriel, and he regretted losing touch with the kid because of that, but he could handle that. For the first time in a while, he didn’t feel empty. He really, truly believed that this time everything would stay just fine.  
He really was an idiot, wasn’t he?

Sans was in the living room watching TV and Papyrus was making dinner. Sans had thought about offering to help, but there really wasn’t room in the kitchen for the two of them trying to work around each other. So he didn’t know what was going on when he heard Papyrus gasp in pain.  
“you okay in there, bro?” he asked, mentally congratulating himself for not completely freaking out. Papyrus had probably just cut himself while chopping something. It had happened before, which was another reason Sans liked to stay out of the kitchen. Too many possible accidents.  
There was a pause that took entirely too much time before Papyrus responded. “Y-YES!” he said, but his voice sounded strained. Sans felt a familiar sense of dread crawling up his spine for the first time in a while. Fear fluttering in his ribcage, he wheeled over to the kitchen.  
“seriously, what-?” he cut himself off with a choked gasp. Papyrus was trembling on his knees, one hand on his chest and one on his neck. His eyes were burning bright orange and attacks started to form but fizzled before they could gain any solidity. “pap!” Sans tore open a shortcut to his brother’s side, unable to bear wasting even a few seconds moving over to him. Papyrus jumped at his sudden appearance, then stared at Sans as if he was the only thing he could see.  
"D-DON’T W-WORRY, SANS. IT’S JUST... I’M F-FINE, I-” Papyrus looked blankly into the distance for a second, as if seeing things that weren’t there, before dragging his gaze back to Sans. “N-NO, I’M N-NOT F-FINE! P-PLEASE... HELP ME!”  
Sans fully expected himself to collapse in a sobbing heap from seeing his brother like this. But as soon as Pap asked for his help, it was like a steel wall locked all of his fear away, allowing him to think clearly. “papyrus, listen to me. can you hear me?” Papyrus nodded, his eyes flickering between unfocused and focused behind those orange flames. “whatever you’re seeing is done. it’s over. you have to come back to now. focus on me, okay?” Sans took Papyrus’ hands and squeezed them tightly, speaking in soothing tones. It really didn’t matter what he said, just that he gave Papyrus something to focus on. He continued talking about anything that crossed his mind, other than the nagging doubts over whether it was working or not, for almost half an hour before the flames died out. Then he started running Pap through the breathing exercises they usually reserved for Sans’ panic attacks. It felt strange to be the one saying to ‘breathe in... and out...’ instead of the one receiving the instructions, but it seemed to be the right thing to do. After ten minutes of that, Papyrus finally seemed to be back to normal. He took one last breath and held it for as long as he could before letting it out in a steady hiss of air.  
“THANK YOU, SANS,” he said with a tired smile. Shakily, he picked up Sans and got to his feet, walking over to the couch and basically collapsing on it.  
Sans didn’t want to pry. He really didn’t. In fact, he would have preferred to just ignore the problem and wait for the whole thing to blow over. But he couldn’t afford to do that when it was Papyrus having the problem. “pap... what was that?” he asked.  
Papyrus sighed and rubbed his eyesockets. “IT WAS LIKE THE NIGHTMARES, BUT I WASN’T ASLEEP. I’M NOT REALLY SURE WHY IT HAPPENED. ALL I CAN REMEMBER WAS FEELING LIKE I HAD BEEN STRUCK, AND THEN THERE I WAS, IN SNOWDIN... DYING. AGAIN. ALTHOUGH... THIS TIME SEMED DIFFERENT.”  
“what was different about it?”  
“THE HU- AH, THE THING PRETENDING TO BE THE HUMAN WAS ARMED WITH A KNIFE. IT WAS GLOWING RED, AND ALL I KNEW WAS THAT I REALLY DIDN’T WANT TO GET HIT BY IT. I... ACTUALLY DODGED. THAT SEEMED TO MAKE THE THING HAPPY, THOUGH. EVENTUALLY, IT GOT ME.” Papyrus started clutching his chest again, probably unconsciously. Occasionally his hand nervously flitted up toward his neck. “IT WAS... MUCH MORE PAINFUL THAN THE OTHER TIMES.”  
Sans gently patted Papyrus’ arm, trying to comfort his brother even though he was starting to freak out himself. Sans had never had any of the ‘nightmares’ intrude on his waking life without a pretty specific set of triggers, most of which involved the kid. He supposed Papyrus’ triggers could have been different. It would really suck if knives were a trigger for Pap though, because it would be impossible to avoid them at his work. If he couldn’t get it under control, he would have to quit. Sans didn’t want to suggest that without more information, though. “do you remember what you were thinking about when it happened?”  
Papyrus shook his head, shifting uncomfortably. At first, Sans suspected the shifting was a bad attempt at hiding a lie, but then Papyrus moved Sans off his lap and onto the other side of the couch and started tugging at the chest piece of his battle body. “SORRY BROTHER, I JUST NEED TO GET THIS OFF FOR A MOMENT. I THINK IT’S TOO TIGHT OR SOMETHING,” Papyrus said, getting up and tugging it off. If Sans didn’t have that wall keeping his panic in check, he would he screamed at what he saw. Papyrus’ ribcage was cracked and dusty along where the thing had slashed at him.  
“papyrus,” he said through clenched teeth, struggling to keep his breathing in check. “call frisk. tell them to get to the lab. **now**. because we have a real problem, and i’m about ten seconds or one slip from completely breaking down right now. ”

It had been over a month of inactivity for Frisk. Of course, they were still going to school, but they didn’t spend much time with friends. Instead, they spent most of their time trying to sneak out and visit Sans and Papyrus. Frisk was concerned about them, and besides, they had to tell Sans about Chara. He was in a position to do something, assuming he was actually out of his coma. Toriel had said Sans was better, but they didn’t trust her anymore. Not after she had basically forbidden them from being anywhere other than school or home. The whole ‘you must stay in my home for your own good’ routine got old hundreds of RESETS ago.  
Frisk sighed, completely giving up on their homework. It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it. They just weren’t feeling up to it. Rubbing their eyes and intending to get it done the next morning, they made their way to bed. As soon as they were comfortable, their phone started buzzing. _Augh. Why now? Can’t it just wait until morning?_ Still, they got up. One look at the caller ID sent all thoughts of sleep from their mind. It said it was from Papyrus! The contents were... worrying, to say the least.

_SUBJECT: HURRY_  
_HUMAN! SOMETHING STRANGE AND TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED! PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE LAB IMMEDIATELY!_

Frisk paused and thought for a moment. They would have to sneak out, that was for sure. But how? Suddenly, they got an idea. They sent a quick text to Monster Kid, who lived next door, and packed an overnight bag full of spare clothes and thin bedding. Soon, they heard Monster Kid and Toriel talking downstairs.  
“Hey You High- uh, Headmistress Toriel. Is Frisk ready yet?” he asked.  
“Why, whatever for?” Toriel replied.  
Frisk took the stairs in twos and said, “Oh, Mum, didn’t I tell you? Monster Kid and I are having a sleepover!”  
Toriel looked a little mad that she hadn’t been informed, but didn’t stop Frisk. She had been pestering them to spend more time with kids their age, so she had nothing much to complain about. “Well, as long as you are back early tomorrow for school,” she said.  
“No worries! Love you, Mum!” Frisk said with a wave as they walked out with Monster Kid, who bobbed their head in a way that was meant to look like a wave. Once they were out, Frisk let the cheery facade drop.  
“What did you need me for?” Monster Kid asked once they were far enough away.  
“Mostly to get me out of there. Thanks, MK. Go back home, get some sleep. And if Toriel asks where I am tomorrow... tell her I sneaked out while you were asleep, okay?”  
Monster kid looked confused, but nodded. He was such a good friend, and Frisk suddenly felt guilty for not spending much time with him. Still, they had things to do. With a determined grimace, they started running to the lab.


	20. Time Shenanigans (Part 9)

Papyrus wasn’t sure about breaking into the labs at first, but one look at his cracked ribcage convinced him that it needed to be done. He started thinking out a plan of attack, and almost went upstairs to get his action figures, before Sans grabbed his arm and started practically dragging him toward the door.  
“SANS! I UNDERSTAND YOU RUSH, BUT-” he started. He was cut off by the dizzying feeling of falling up and down at the same time, and then suddenly they were in the lab. Papyrus stumbled as his feet hit solid ground. There was a second where he felt utterly disconnected from the world before he felt his soul slam back into his body. He ran over to the trashcan and started retching. Maybe it was a good thing this had happened _before_ dinner.  
“ papyrus? oh god, i’m sorry!” Sans said, rushing over. Papyrus trying to comfort him, but he was interrupted by another spasm as his body tried to throw up food that wasn’t there. He had to close his eyes and just breathe for a minute before the spasms died down to simple shaking.  
“I’M ALRIGHT. THIS DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH...” Unable to find adequate words for the situation, he settled for just gesturing at his ribcage. Although this illness wasn’t helping with the ribcage problem, and vice versa.  
“damn it! i knew the first time would be hard on you! i shouldn’t have... not so soon after... _that_ ,” Sans said. Papyrus stood up carefully. When he was sure he could move away from the trashcan without risking any more retches, he started to pace.  
“THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ANY OF MY NIGHTMARES HAS AFFECTED ME LIKE THIS,” he said, thinking out loud. He always felt better while working on a puzzle. “AND THE FIRST TIME THEY HAVE HAPPENED TO ME WHILE I WAS AWAKE. WAS IT GETTING WORSE OVER TIME AND I JUST DIDN’T NOTICE, OR DID SOMETHING CHANGE?” Sans looked surprised to see Papyrus up and trying to figure things out already. Still, it seemed to help calm him down a little. Sans hummed tunelessly to himself the way he always did when he was thinking especially hard. Papyrus was pretty sure Sans didn’t realize he did that when he was thinking, but it was soothing to Papyrus. It meant his brother was trying to work through the problem rather than aimlessly dwelling on it.  
“well, i did change something, didn’t i? maybe that’s what was different this time?” he suggested.  
Papyrus shook his head. “THAT WAS MONTHS AGO. WOULDN’T IT HAVE HAPPENED SOONER IF THAT WAS THE CASE?”  
“i dunno. time’s funny.”  
Before they could think of anything else, Frisk slipped in. If Papyrus wasn’t being slightly paranoid, he would have probably missed them. As it was, he involuntarily flinched at their sudden appearance. They didn’t say anything at first, instead just staring at Sans and Papyrus. Their eyes lingered on Sans’ legs and Papyrus’ ribs, and it looked like they were about to cry. Instead, they started scratching their arm nervously and asked, “What the hell happened to you two?” There was something strange about the way they asked, as if they already suspected an answer.  
Sans hissed as the question snapped him out of his train of thought. “we’re not sure. i _think_ pap was somehow... **affected**... by a previous timeline. one of **chara’s**. ”  
Frisk looked very, very uncomfortable with that, which was understandable. Having that thing controlling them must have been terrible. They started to walk over to their desk, and Papyrus couldn’t help but cringe away from them a little bit. They stopped, staring at Papyrus sadly. “Oh... you too...?” Those tears they were holding back started up again, but they regained their composure and wiped them away. Slowly, they backed over to the wall and leant against it, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Papyrus almost cursed. He knew that his human was not that thing, but, he couldn’t bring himself to get closer and assure them of that. His body just wouldn’t move. “And what about you, Sans? What’s with the wheelchair?”  
Both skeletons looked confused for a second. “LADY TORIEL DIDN’T TELL YOU”  
“Tell me _what_? What happened?”  
Sans laughed bitterly. “ course she didn’t. what did i expect? i can’t move my legs, kid. at all. haven’t been able to since the coma.” Papyrus rushed over to his side. He thought they had been moving on well, but the question seemed to bring up all the pain and bitterness all over again.  
“Oh god, Sans, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” They started to step toward him, but paused. Their gaze flickered to Papyrus before they backed against the wall again. He hadn’t even flinched that time. Things were not going well at all, and after what he had just been through he couldn’t handle it. He could feel his resolve and optimism starting to crumble.  
Why should he have to be so happy all the time, anyway? Wasn’t he allowed to hurt? Wasn’t he allowed to be angry, or scared? He really was scared. Something he didn’t understand had hurt him, broken his bones, tried to kill him, and he was still the one that had to be strong!  
He was right. He had to be strong. Everyone was struggling, not just him. And from what he could tell, his brother and the human had been struggling a lot longer than he had. But they didn’t have to suffer alone. They could all help each other if they all just _talked_ about what was going on. But by the looks of things, he would have to be the one to start.  
“ SANS. WE’RE GOING TO GET THROUGH THIS. WE’LL BE OKAY,” he said, gently squeezing Sans’ hand before turning to the human. “FRISK. I KNOW THAT WASN’T YOU. EVEN IF I SHY AWAY WITHOUT THINKING, I STILL BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON.” Trying not to shake, he knelt down and held his arms out for a hug. The human hesitated before slowly moving away from the wall and hugging Papyrus. They barely touched him, as if he was made of glass, and Papyrus couldn’t help but be grateful for that. Things weren’t good, but they were a little better. After a while, he said, “I’M NOT SURE WHAT’S GOING ON. AND TO BE HONEST, THIS WHOLE THING SCARES ME. BUT WE CAN FIGURE IT OUT. RIGHT?”  
Frisk sighed and pulled away. “I think I know what happened,” they said. It was like they had to force out every word. Sans sat up straight, looking both curious and suspicious. Papyrus wanted to go back to Sans, comforting him while they talked, but he found that he was too tired to stand up again. “Sans, when I was looking for a way to get you out of that coma, I found Gaster. He helped bring you back, but while I was there he tried to help me get rid of Chara, like we wanted. It... didn’t go well. Chara isn’t with me anymore, but they’re not one hundred percent dead. And now they’re running lose in the timelines somewhere with the weapon Gaster made to kill them. And that weapon may be able to kill people from across timelines.”  
There was a very long, very awkward pause as the skeleton brothers let that information sink in. Then Frisk’s soul suddenly _pinged_ blue and they were slammed against the wall. “ **And you just let them leave with a weapon like that? Do you know what you’ve _done_ , Frisk? You’ve killed us all. Again! Why didn’t you wait for me? Why did you try to do this alone? Now we’re all going to die!**"  
“I didn’t do it on purpose! They attacked me!” they cried, struggling even though they knew it was pointless. Papyrus tried to snap his brother out of it, but Sans ignored him.  
“ **we’re all going to die for good and it’s _your fault_! we were _so close_... we were... ** we were happy, frisk. we were happy, and you had to go and let **that fuc-** "  
“SWEAR JAR,” Papyrus said. He didn’t mean to, it was a bit of an automatic reaction, but at least it made Sans pause. His brother turned a little, looking confused. Then he started laughing. “UM... DID I SAY SOMETHING WRONG?”  
“n-no, heheh, it’s just... i didn’t expect to hear something so... _normal_ right now. we’re gonna die, and you’re still worried about me swearing in front of the kid. it’s... a little ridiculous, ” Sans said. He lost his hold on the human, his laughter getting a little bit hysterical.  
“SANS, THIS ISN’T AS BAD AS YOU THINK. NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS, WE CAN BEGIN TO SOLVE IT!” Papyrus said, gently putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Sans’ laughter receded, and he was solemn again.  
“you... really think so, pap?”  
“WELL, SOMEONE NEEDS TO THINK THAT. IF WE ALL JUST GAVE UP, THEN THERE REALLY WOULD BE NO HOPE.”  
“... heh. i guess so. let’s... try to fix things.”  
Sans smiled weakly, and Papyrus smiled back. They both looked over at the human, who was crumpled against the wall. The way they cringed away when Sans looked at them... it reminded Papyrus of exactly how he had felt looking at the human right after his vision. But there was no way Sans would kill the human, even if they had killed him. Right?  
After how Sans had reacted just then, he wasn’t sure.

Frisk told themself to get up. They couldn’t. Their back ached, but that wasn’t the problem. They could tell from experience what a serious, paralysing back injury felt like, which was slightly disturbing. No, their problem was the shock. It was the first time Sans had attacked them like that outside of the judgement hall, and the wave of terror and surprise had hit them harder than the wall had. They could hear Sans shouting something about something. It sounded like they were listening from underwater, but it was obvious that Sans was upset.  
“I didn’t do it on purpose! They attacked me!” the shouted. Their on voice sounded muffled, and it was a while before Sans released them. He was talking to Papyrus, which gave Frisk some time to gather their thoughts. Everything scattered again when Sans looked at them, his eyes still glowing slightly blue. Of course he was still mad.  
“S-Sans, I’m so sorry, I swear I tried to kill them but I couldn’t! I-I don’t know why I hesitated!” They honestly couldn’t remember what made them not want to rid themself of Chara. Whenever they tried, they only remembered static. “The first time through the Underground, I murdered Asgore and Flowey just to get out. I did that, not Chara. But now I can’t even bring myself to kill a little demon kid that’s already dead!”  
“frisk,” Sans said, cutting through the haze that had settled in their mind. “don’t... don’t regret mercy, okay? ‘m sorry.”  
“YOU ONLY DID WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS RIGHT, HUMAN!” Papyrus said from where he was now sitting on the floor. “I, FOR ONE, AM GLAD YOU DID NOT DO A VIOLENCE! WHILE I AM EVER-SO-SLIGHTLY TERRIFIED OF THIS ‘CHARA’, I AM SURE THAT THEY CAN... BE A GOOD PERSON... IF THEY TRY.” He didn’t look convinced.  
“Okay. Okay. We just have to track them down, right?” Frisk asked. “Then we stop them... however we have to.”  
“yeah. kid, i, uh, should have listened to you before i did anything. i... know how chara can get when they want something,” Sans said. Frisk almost jumped for joy. Sans wasn’t mad. He didn’t blame them! Sure, it was their fault, but it was done. They had to move on to fixing things.  
“WELL! OUR FIRST ACTION NOW SHOULD BE DINNER AND SLEEP!” Papyrus said. “... CAN SOMEONE HELP ME UP? I BELIEVE I’VE BECOME TOO TIRED TO STAND ON MY OWN.”

While Papyrus understood this time, he was still a little disappointed when Frisk and Sans went back to practically living in the lab. He especially didn’t like lying to Lady Toriel about it. She had torn her way into the lab, leaving the human only just enough time to make both brothers promise not tell her anything about where they were before hiding. She had focused on Sans, questioning and threatening him ruthlessly. He had been perfectly nonchalant about it, so it wasn’t too bad. Then she started visiting Papyrus at work during his breaks to question him. The visits were infrequent and unexpected.  
The first time she asked, she had been suspicious.  
The second time she asked, she was angry.  
The third time she asked, she was distraught.  
“Please... Please, I know you know where my child is,” she sobbed. Papyrus shook his head, feeling like dirt.  
“NO, I D-DON’T,” Papyrus said. He was a terrible liar.  
“Stop _lying_ to me!” She summoned a flame in her hand. “ _Where. Is. My. CHILD?”_  
“ LADY TORIEL!” Papyrus gasped, backing away a little. The few people that were around hurried past, very pointedly not looking at them. “I CAN’T TELL YOU! B-BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW!” Toriel advanced on him. She wouldn’t attack him. She wouldn’t. He was sure. So why was he shaking? “L-LADY TORIEL?” He wouldn’t stand down. He had to face danger head-on, right? But there was no danger. So if there was no danger, there was no shame in dodging, right? But there was nothing to dodge. No danger. She wouldn’t. That flame was worryingly close. Papyrus wasn’t used to being so afraid. But he still remembered what his bones felt like as they turned to dust.  
Toriel had backed him against the wall. She loomed over him and for a second he thought that she really was going to do it. He would die. He wished he had asked Sans to teach him how to dodge. Then Toriel faltered slightly. “I... apologize, Papyrus. That was despicable of me.” She stepped back, and it was only then the Papyrus realize he had buried his face in his scarf. He looked back up, about to assure her that he knew she wouldn’t attack him, but she was already gone. Toriel didn’t visit again.  
Papyrus was jumpy for days afterward. He wasn’t sure if the visions had gotten worse because he was nervous or the other way around. It had almost become normal for him to be torn out of a conversation and become completely engulfed in another timeline. It was never pleasant, even if he wasn’t dying at that moment. Whenever his mind was in another timeline, it became so hard to remember what he was doing. The surface felt like a far-off dream, and he was almost convinced that those timelines were his reality.  
The first time it happened, or second counting the time that started this, he was having breakfast with Sans. Or, had been dreaming about having breakfast with Sans? Because Sans was busy evacuating everyone, he knew that. He had told him to. The human was coming, and he was going to help them. He had to, for everyone’s sake. The human ignored everything he said and slashed him across the ribcage so hard it snapped his neck right off.  
“-yrus! papyrus!” Sans shouted. Sans shouldn’t have been there, he shouldn’t have had to see his brother turning to dust... But. He wasn’t. He was sitting in his living room. Safe.  
“SANS? D-DID YOU... GET EVERYONE TO SAFETY?” he asked. He would have to check on the citizens and see who survived.  
“pap. we’re not in snowdin anymore,” he said, very slowly. Something clicked in Papyrus’ head. They were on the surface.  
“... OH. RIGHT. SORRY, I THOUGHT...” Papyrus shook his head to clear it. “I’M ALRIGHT NOW.”  
Sans looked uncomfortable, but he didn’t push the issue. Still, every time it happened he looked more and more haggard. Papyrus was starting to feel tired too, which was new for him. Once he even slept in later than Sans. He was lucky it was the weekend, or he would have missed his morning shift at the restaurant.  
Eventually, Sans and Frisk both insisted he take a sick day so that they could take him to the lab and try to figure out what was going on. He didn’t understand a lot of what they did, but after some ‘initial scans’ Sans and the human retreated to the board they used to organize their thoughts.  
After a while, their conversation got heated. They weren’t quite yelling at each other, but they did raise their voices just enough for Papyrus to be able to hear them from across the room.  
“no! absolutely not!” Sans said.  
Frisk rolled their eyes. “I’m just saying, we don’t have enough information to go by.”  
“we can work with this!”  
“Sans, none of this is very good information. If we want anything conclusive-!”  
“if you even go near him-!”  
“Sans, nothing we do will hurt him!”  
“ _you can’t know that!_ ”  
“Sans, be reasonable!”  
“what if it makes it worse?”  
“And what if it’ll just get worse on its own?"  
“...”  
“Sans.”  
“... i don’t know. i don’t know what to do.”  
Papyrus cut in. “IF THIS IS ABOUT ME, I’M WILLING TO DO WHATEVER I CAN TO HELP!”  
“pap, we’re talking about scientific experiments here. even if it starts out pretty tame, it could get painful quickly,” Sans said, turning to him.  
“WELL. THAT’S NO TROUBLE. I’M HURTING ALMOST ALL THE TIME NOW,” Papyrus admitted. He really didn’t want to worry Sans by bringing it up, but it had become relevant. Both Sans and Frisk stared. There was an awkward pause before Frisk spoke.  
“Sans. We may need to speed up our research.”

Sans hated experimenting on Papyrus. The first experiment was the worst. Frisk wanted Pap to try to control when he looked into other universes, and since they didn’t know how to stop the visions they focused on trying to find what triggered them. Whenever he tried, it was as if he was in actual pain. Eventually, Sans just had to shut off. He didn’t like doing it. In fact, he didn’t even know how he did it. Just that sometimes he could stop paying attention to his emotions and complete his tasks. It was a lot easier after that.  
Well, it was easier until they finished. Then he snapped out of it and saw exactly how tired the experiments made Papyrus. “are you gonna be okay, bro?” he asked, more than a little upset with himself.  
Papyrus just smiled. “I WILL BE FINE! I’M SIMPLY TIRED! I THOUGHT YOU WOULD ENJOY RUBBING IN HOW LAZY I’M BEING RIGHT NOW!”  
That made Sans laugh a little. “nice to see you actually resting for once. do you want a bedtime story?”  
Papyrus considered it, then shook his head. “I WAS WONDERING... IF WE COULD TALK ABOUT YOUR SCIENCE THINGS? MAYBE IF I UNDERSTAND MORE, I CAN BE OF MORE USE!”  
Sans hesitated. He would have to look at the kid’s notes to see what had happened before. Trying to remember what he did while he was ‘switched off’ was a little bit like trying to remember what they did as Comic Papyrus. Possible, but it took a while. “i’ll have to get back to you on that. but... if you really wanna talk about science, there are some other things i was thinking about. we probably won’t get time to test any of them, but they’re nice ideas.”  
“TELL ME THOSE, THEN!”  
Sans paused to get his thought in order before starting to talk about all the things he thought Frisk might be able to do with their determination and enough practice. Could they bring things with them through timelines? Sans had already done that using dimensional boxes, so it was likely. And if they could bring objects back, why not less physical things, like memories? They retained their memories, and people seemed to remember small things on their own, so would it be a stretch to think they could bring someone else’s back fully? Or even parts? He started going into his theories on exactly _how_ they might be able to do it, but Papyrus was starting to nod off. “ let’s finish talking tomorrow, hey?” he said, patting Papyrus’ hand. He knew he shouldn’t have, because it would be terrible for his back, but he stayed with Papyrus and fell asleep in his wheelchair.  
That became their routine for the next few weeks. They would perform an experiment, Sans would switch off, then he would talk to Papyrus until he fell asleep. He didn’t get much time to talk, because Papyrus was falling asleep a lot faster and more often than usual.  
At one point, he decided to tell Frisk that enough was enough. They weren’t going to do any more experiments. Frisk had just shrugged. “I have enough data to work with for now. I suppose we don’t have to keep going,” they said. Then they realized how callous that sounded. “You’re right, Sans. We should give Pap a break. I... hate that this is hurting him.”  
The break didn’t seem to do anything though. Papyrus still seemed to get more and more tired each day. Soon, he wouldn’t get out of bed unless he really had to, or if he thought Sans needed cheering up. Soon after that, he couldn’t get out of bed at all.  
“SANS, I REALLY AM FINE. LOOK, I CAN MOVE EVERYTHING FINE, DON’T WORRY,” he said, cutting off Sans’ worried babbling. “I’M JUST NOT FEELING UP TO IT RIGHT NOW.”  
Sometimes, he would sleep an entire day away. And as he got more tired, the cracks in his bones got more prominent. Chara really was killing him. Was this happening to every Papyrus, or just the ones that had access to alternate timelines?  
Frisk insisted they start monitoring Papyrus’ soul to see what was happening to it. It left Pap’s soul hanging out in the open, hooked up to machines that Sans just couldn’t look at. He didn’t want to know what they said about Pap’s condition. The kid started staying at his bedside too.  
“Sans,” they said quietly. He didn’t know why they lowered their voice. Even when he yelled, Pap wouldn’t wake up. “Maybe you should take a few days for yourself. Even if you can’t leave the labs, you should sleep and eat.”  
“what if he wakes up?” What if he got worse? “i have to be here.”  
“He’s not going to like waking up to see you half-starved and collapsing from exhaustion,” Frisk said. It was reasonable enough, but...  
No. No buts. The kid was right. “you’ve got a point,” he sighed. “i’m gonna grab something from the snack machine ad maybe have a nap. wake me if anything changes.”  
Frisk nodded. “And I’ll stay by his side the whole time you’re away. Promise!” They pulled out a notepad containing a condensed version of their notes and started working on it as Sans left.

Papyrus didn’t know where he was. He couldn’t tell who he was. Was he the Papyrus that loved puzzles or traps? Pasta or smokes? Energetic or lazy? Truly happy or simply faking optimism? Older or younger brother? Brother... Sans. He had to get back to Sans. Sans would be worried. It took him weeks. It hurt. It hurt a lot. He was sure it was breaking him apart. But he had to get back to Sans. Slowly and all at once, he dragged himself back to his own timeline.

Frisk didn’t have high hopes for Papyrus. His soul was getting weaker by the day. They had managed to convince Sans to leave three more times after that first try, which had seemed to help him. If they could just save one of them...  
Suddenly, a loud _beep_ sounded from the machines that were monitoring Papyrus’ soul. Frisk threw down their notepad and checked the screens. It wasn’t looking good. They were halfway through setting up the machines to start pumping healing magic into Pap’s soul when he suddenly woke up. They didn’t notice at first, since he didn’t thrash or jump up. He just opened his eyes and looked at them.  
“P-Pap?” they asked, faltering for a second. They quickly finished with the healing and rushed over to his side.  
“ H-HUMAN... WHERE I-IS... SANS?”  
Frisk cursed themself for convincing him to leave. “He’s right outside, Pap! I’m going to get him. Just hold on, okay?” Papyrus nodded and almost closed his eyes again. “Pap, stay awake!” they shouted, jerking Papyrus awake. As they ran to the doorway, they glanced at the machines to see how his soul was doing.  
It really didn’t look good.  
“Sans!” they called, sticking their head into the other room. Sans was asleep on one of the desks, but woke up when he heard his name.  
“frisk! did something happen?” he asked, hurrying over. Frisk stopped him before he entered.  
“He’s awake, but I don’t think he should be. It’s... this might be... make it a good talk, okay?” Frisk couldn’t bear to say out loud, but they both knew what they meant. _It’s going badly. This might be it. Make it a good talk, because it could be the last one._  
They walked off, leaving Sans standing just outside Pap’s room, and tried to find a quiet place to go and cry.

Sans finally found the courage to enter the room. He almost choked, seeing the state Papyrus was in. He couldn’t sit up, and could barely look in Sans’ direction. There were deep shadows under his eyesockets, but he still tried to smile as Sans walked in. The machines told him what they both already knew. Papyrus was dying. The thin layer of dust and the stuttering beat of his soul were all the evidence they needed.  
“p-pap... no, no, please... i’m so sorry. t-this is... it’s my fault!”  
Papyrus slowly shook his head. “S-SANS.” He practically coughed the word. Every syllable seemed painful. “NOT... YOUR FAULT. I A-A-ASKED... FOR IT. I W-WANTED TO H-HELP. WAS I... DID I HELP, BROTHER?”  
Sans bit back tears. He had to stay strong. “yeah. bro, you were... you are the most helpful assistant i ever had.”  
“G-GOOD. HEY. D-DON’T CRY, SANS.” Sans didn’t even realise he had started crying. He hadn’t meant to. He really wanted to stay calm for Papyrus. But he couldn’t even do that. “WE... WORKED R-REALLY WELL TOGETHER, D-DIDN’T WE?”  
Sans nodded, unable to speak. He couldn’t open his mouth or he would start wailing. But... they _did_ work well together. A crazy idea started to form in Sans’ mind. He didn’t have time to think it through. He just had to go for it.  
“ papyrus,” he said, surprised at how clear his voice was. He wheeled over to the side of the bed and took Pap’s hand. “fuse with me.”  
Papyrus looked shocked, but he didn’t object. They both concentrated, reaching out with their souls. Everything faded as they started to fuse.

Comic Papyrus blinked awake, surprised at how sick and sluggish he felt. What was he even doing? Why had Sans and Papyrus fused? His memories were fuzzy, but he could almost remember...  
“Oh,” he said, almost falling apart when he remembered. Worryingly enough, he couldn’t remember much from Papyrus’ perspective. His soul was too weak. The brothers had barely managed to fuse at all, which explained why he felt disoriented whenever he tried to move. It didn’t help that Sans and Papyrus had completely opposite opinions on dying. Papyrus had already accepted it. He had seen it enough times to be glad to die peacefully, lying on a bed and talking to his brother, rather than alone and sprawled in the snow. But Sans couldn’t accept it. He was sure fusing would somehow fix the problem. Maybe his soul energy would boost Papyrus’ or they could just stay fused until they figured out another solution. If worse came to worst, maybe one soul dying while fused would kill the other one.  
Comic Papyrus tried to look at his souls, but couldn’t manage to gather the energy. It wasn’t just the bad fusion causing it. He could feel Papyrus’ soul start to crumble. “N-no!” he gasped as the pain started to take hold. Was dying meant to be that painful? The brothers had never experienced anything more than a quick jolt as the knife hit their ribs. Was it different for fusions?  
Papyrus’ soul shattered.  
The pain shot up, coursing through his bones as if his marrow had been replaced with the lava from the core. He thrashed around, trying desperately to hold the fragments of Papyrus’ soul together, but the pieces just crumbled into dust. His legs went limp, and he realized that it was just Sans’ soul supporting him. He didn’t think it was possible for someone to be in so much pain. It was worse than drinking straight determination.  
And then everything disappeared. For a brief, selfish moment before he blacked out, he realized something. Without Papyrus, he would never exist again.

Sans lay on the floor, sobbing. He didn’t even care about the pain. Nothing was worse than the sheer, undeniable _absence_ of his brother. Where he normally felt a comforting link to Papyrus after fusion, there was a void. He was so very, very alone. Even when Frisk ran in and pulled him back onto his chair, he was alone. Even when they shouted and shook his shoulders, he was alone. Even when they took him to Alphys to find out what was wrong, he was alone. He thought he had been empty before. He thought he had been empty enough to give up, to throw himself off Waterfall. But he had never known just how empty he could be. How alone he could be. He had killed Papyrus. But even at the end, his brother still tried to comfort him. Even as his soul crumbled to dust, he was still smiling. A real smile, not the useless, garbage grins that Sans did. He hadn’t been _lying_ when he smiled. Papyrus was as genuine as he always was.  
Papyrus.  
Papyrus.  
Papyruspapyruspapyruspapyruspapyrus!  
For a long time, all Sans did was sit in his chair, chanting his brother’s name over and over in his head. He wasn’t even aware of anything going on in the outside world until he heard Frisk say something.  
“- a RESET would-”  
“ reset.”  
Frisk and Alphys turned to face him. He realized he was still in the lab. Judging by how many new notes and equations lined the room, he had been there for a while. “S-Sans?” Alphys gasped.  
Sans ignored her and stared at the kid. “reset,” he repeated.  
The kid looked puzzled for a moment before the realization dawned on them. “Oh. Oh, Sans. I can’t just... I can’t just RESET this now. We’re a lot closer, but there’s more work to be done before we’re sure I’d end up in the right timeline.”  
“if it’s got pap, it’s the right timeline. reset.”  
Frisk looked to Alphys for her opinion. She looked stunned, but quickly ran a few numbers in her head. “I-I’m pretty s-sure... if you R-RESET enough t-times you’d e-end up with C-Chara again. J-just... maybe n-not the f-first t-time.”  
Frisk sighed and rubbed their eyes. “Okay. Fine. I have those extra abilities that Sans and Pap came up with, right?”  
Sans flinched at Papyrus’ name, but couldn’t help asking, “what abilities?”  
Frisk grabbed a notebook from the bench and handed it to Sans. The words ‘FOR FRISK’ were written on the cover in Papyrus’ handwriting. Slowly, Sans opened it.

 _GREETINGS, HUMAN! IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WRITING! SANS VISITED ME AGAIN TODAY! HE WAS QUITE TALKATIVE, AND ONE OF THE ‘’HOT TOPICS’ (AS METTATON WOULD SAY) WAS YOU! SPECIFICALLY, YOUR TIME ABILITIES! HE HAS SUGGESTED A GREAT MANY THINGS YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DO, WITH PRACTICE! HE CLAIMS THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO BE EXPERIMENTING WITH THESE THINGS, BUT I BELIEVE YOU MAY FIND THEM USEFUL. I ASK THAT YOU ATTEMPT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WHEN YOU CAN,_ ~~SINCE WE BOTH KNOW TRYING TO HEAL ME IS A WASTE OF~~  
FOR NOW, I HAVE HIDDEN THIS BOOK AWAY SO THAT YOU DO NOT FIND IT BEFORE I AM FINISHED RECORDING YOUR POTENTIAL ABILITIES! I WILL HAVE TO REVEAL IT IN A TRULY SPECTACULAR AND SURPRISING FASHION, AS IT IS THE LEAST A GIFT OF THIS MAGNITUDE DESERVES!  
FROM PAPYRUS  
(PS, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS GIFT TO BE ROMANTIC IN NATURE. I REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT IS STILL DO NOT SHARE THOSE KINDS OF FEELINGS FOR YOU)

Even after reading the very first page, Sans had seen enough. He couldn’t bear to look at his brother’s handwriting anymore, and he had to close the book to stop his tears getting on the pages. He didn’t deserve to leave a mark in his brother’s final gift to his precious human. His eyes lingered on the neatly crossed-out line. How long had Papyrus known he was dying? Sans couldn’t think about it.  
“all the stuff i told him. the theories... he was listening,” Sans said.  
Frisk nodded. “There’s a lot of good stuff in there,” they said gently. “I think... with that stuff, I’m ready to RESET. But Sans, I promise. As soon as I get this mess sorted out, I’m going to RESET for the last time. And in that timeline, I’m going to do everything right. I’ll get us out. I promise.” With that, they closed their eyes and flickered out of existence.  
It could take anywhere from a second to an hour for the timeline to collapse. Sans remembered that. He took the time to look around the room, and his eyes settled on a small table in the opposite corner. It was a small cabinet with a picture of Papyrus surrounded by candles.  
Alphys noticed what he was looking at. “O-oh! Sorry, t-that’s... I t-thought... it’s a s-shrine. I t-thought... he would like it. If... you know.”  
The shrine filled Sans with determination. He wheeled over to his machine and wrenched the door open.  
“S-Sans? What-?”  
“this was what i built it for! the kid’s not going alone, not this time!” he said, setting the machine to send him back with Frisk. He didn’t hear what Alphys said over the whine of the machine starting. He threw himself off his chair and into the machine just as it activated. Everything went dark.

Gaster wasn’t surprised to see Sans appear. Other than Papyrus’ death, this had been the plan.  


"Ḩ̵͉̫͈ͤ̒̀͑͜E̸̥͙̮͓̜͖͒̎͞H̤͈̞̩͙͌ͭ͋ͩ͆̊́ͫ́̚͝.̵̜̬͇̣̬̣̲͍̘͂ͦ ̴͙͖ͫ̇̀H̓̆͗҉͈͟Ḛ̡̠͊̂̏̀ͬ ̙̹̯̺͖͍̹͊ͮD̖̤͔̣̹̬̞ͣ̔́ͅĔ̈ͤ̓̅҉̖̩̭͔̖͔͍̀L̶̸̓̌ͩ͋̀̉̚҉͕͙͉̠̗̩I̵͗̀͊̆͏̭͎̗̘V̬̦̖̰͔͕̞ͬ̈ͦ̀́É̩̲̻̘̥̾̄́͜Ṛ̴̨̮̈́̇̑̅̄̽͗̓ͣEͦ̎̍̈́͌̏ͫ̑̚͏̹̦Ḑ̸̥͎̤ͨ̔͐͛ͬ͐ ̵̵̷̲̹̳̞͉̜͔̩̒̌͋͋̄̐̈͆Ȟ̶̭̜̘͓͎͖ͨ̓͘I̖̠̟̳͕̠͎̺ͤ̉͠M̈́͋͋͏̰̬̫̺Ş͕̲͎̩̙ͨ͋̋͆͗̀͌̊ͅE̡̢͖͍͔̅̀̽͗ͩͬ͆͌L̢̖̟͍͖̠͓̽̃͑͐̇ͯF̴̴̨͇̿̆ͬͩ͊ ̬̞̼͚̪͗͛̏̇ͤ̎́͞͝R̺̯͎̭̖͔̳̼͉͊̎̈́ͩͣ̊ͦȊ̦̺̈G̻͙̳̤̤̥̮̾H͔̐́́T̡͖̟̰̠͉̠͛̈͑ͣ̏́̚ ̤̣̥͈̄ͥ̆̍́ͩ͋͐̕T̺̟̭̭̟͙̟̬̿̈́̽͒Õ̷͌ͭ̆̾͏̣̞̪̭͘ ̛̝͕͙̣͍̺͍͛̊̐̐̈ͧͧͅM̡̟̫͈̟̯͈̓̅ͪ͗ͫͥ̓͟͡E̴̶̜͈͕͂̏̓ͪ͒͗̾ͯ.̵̦̳̊͊ͬ̃̾̚͢͡ ̞̘̻̰ͦ̇ͧ̏̓ͮ́͡͡B̮͈̱̹̫̪̭͋̈́ͤͧ̔̏͋̍ͮ̀U̠̙͖͙̫͙ͤ̍ͨ̀T̫͍̘̗̞͉̒̓͋̏́̍ͨ̽̚ ̺͕̝͇̯͍̥̹͑ͮ̒́̎ͯͅD͋͛͂̈͏͎͎̞̟̭O̢̞̩̫̭̣̙̘͓ͮ̊͆̅͛ͥ̀N̞̠̩̋ͥͣ̌͗͘'̡͖͉̖̥̻̲ͧ̀̊͑ͭ̕ͅT̪͉̝͓̭̭͎͈͋̋́ ̩͙͙̪̍̎̒̀ͩ͂̿̽W̨̟̗̺͙̤͚̾̓̿̐͜O̡̙̤͕̻͙͓̪ͪͪͧ͝R̸̺͍̯̺͕͈͙̍R̢̟̮̖̗̾̂̈́ͪͦ̑ͨ͘͡Y̮̞͕̦̱͚̺̞ͣͨ͗̕̕,̸̭̮͋̄ͨ̆͑ ̢͎̣̼̮͎̉̽͌ͣ̾̈̓͐ͅI̢̟̊̃ ̥̖̪̰̺̣̲͚͖͑ͫ̉͐̌̓͐̃́W̲̭̯̯̞̖̱ͣ̌ͥ͆̐̄Ơ̼̓̈ͯ͗̿͟N̨̹͍͋̎͝'̶̡̞͇ͩ̆T̩̲̮̹̰̱̟̱ͯ̅͂̄̿̈͑̏͡͡ͅ ͑ͯ̈́́̈̅̀͏͔͙̟͍̝̗̫͕Ȧ̫̫͖̫̫͕̼̤̎͆̍ͨB̨̞͕̼͓̤̐̂ͣ̂́ͤ͑͡͝ͅŚ͒ͣ͋̿ͬ̅̒̕҉̪O̶̡̲̜̖̩͍̟͖̯͌ͨ̏̔ͥͭ̀̐R͓̟͖̲̭̮̠ͭ̋͐̓̉̍̏ͫ́B̀͊̐҉̱͎̦̞̦ ͓̭̻͔͈̟͍̏͒̂̎̑̍́͘͢͠Ĥ̶̛̓҉͈̹̥͇̘̭͚I̸̼̜̖̝̺̘͎͓ͨ̏̿ͩ̊͡͝M̨̨̤̼̺͍̔͌̓͢ ̷̝̼̦̬̠̙̍͒ͣR̞̙̰̠ͨ̉͆͐I̢̲̱͎͖̣̖̹͓ͪ͜G̡̞̣̥̗͇͖̰̍ͫ̓ͭ͢H̡̢̞͔̮̾͊̆ͦͥ͌́͞T̈̈ͩ̈͏̖̘͇ ̤̣̣̻̭̖̭̬͛͐͆́ͬ̃ͩͧͥ̀̕Ą̶̹̻͚̭̿ͣ͋̈̐̍̔̃ͦW͈͈̯̯ͫ̓͌͂̾̄͋͢Ḁ̜̭͉̬̜͈ͨ̄̉͆Y̡̗͍̼ͩ̄.̡̜̥̼̮͔̳̙̱͂͐͑̌̇̐͆͠ ̶̧̬̻̼̦̦̭̅͋̈͊́Ȃ͔̫͖̪̞̭̣͍̂̈ͧ̄̓ͫ͠F̷̲̳̣͎̬͒T̝̞͙̪̳̳̱͔ͥ̓̑͝͞E̟̪̗̫̎ͨͥ͌͡R̵͓̖̜̭̬̐̅̆͗̀ͦ̅͝ ̷̸̩̮̽̀̃ͥ̍͌͛A̡̟͕͇ͭͥ̅͒̂́ͥL̬͉̻̖̺͓̼͚ͮ̍̎L͒̅̃҉̫͖.͍̗̺͐̂̿̀̃͒̆͢.̧͕̺̫͂ͭͬͨ̒̅̂ͯͬ͜.͕̺̫͚͋ͩ̇ͤ͛͟ ̨̛̗̼͓̺̞ͮ̈͋͢I̡̢͓͓̪̬̹ͧ̄̒ͣ͋͂͜ ͍̰̼͈̯̙̠̺͋̏͑̎̍͘̕D̸̒̂͑ͯ̍̽ͪ̉̂҉̻̪̗Iͭͨ͋̾́̃͗ͪ͆͝͏̣̖̩̘̣͉D͆҉̳̲̮̜ ̡̛̯̺̥̹̹̠̆̏ͩͅṖ̨͇̞͚̞ͮ̊ͩ̎̿̃̅́͢R̢̦̞͇̪̱̼̣͚̈́ͣͯ͜ͅO̗̳̜̰ͥ̈́̃͑̀͜M̤̻̟͉̝͐ͥ̉ͦ̾͋͞͠ͅͅI͍̩̺͈̪̼̘͊͒̚̚͟͞S̜̥̙̝͎̼̰̟̈́͌ͪͭ͂͐ͥ͑E̶̦̊͐́ ̸̝͙͎̩̦ͦͬ̂͑͗̌̚T͊ͪͭͫͥ́҉̵̪̖̪̩̠͔̟Ó͓̠͈͖̟̞ͬͯ͡͡ͅ ͋͌̆̐ͭ҉̤͔̫̱̯͍͈̩P̵̺̜̫̬̗͒ͣ̍́̅ͭͫ̑L̷̲͍̩ͣ̈́̃ͭ̐̓̕Â̻̰̤̞͋̍̓͐ͅY̦̠̝̪̙̥̔͂ͯͨͤͥ̓ ̺̜̠͎̭̜̌͌ͬ̚Ẇ̅ͭ̏ͯ͛̌́҉̮̳͇͉͇̰ͅI̡̝͚̘̓̊͋͠ͅŢ̟̩͑̒̆̐͆̓H̨͚̞̼͑͆͋̉ ̸͉̠͙̙̪̯̬̋H̷͇̜̀̔͐͛͋̌̎ͬI͍̻̲̮͖̜͋̿ͪ́̒͞M̴̡͉͓̔ͦͦ̐̍̅̆̇͗ ̴̨̗͙͈̦ͧ̑ͮF̳̌͘I̢̤͔͎̞̲̱͛̋̽ͮ͡R̝ͯͥ̿ͬ̏̾̋ͮ͜S̶̛̞̟̺̐͂͜T̶͈͙̦͍̳͌̄̓̾̅̇͛͟"

Gaster grins right at you.


	21. The Last Lost Soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Brothertale finale from Frisk's point of view.

Frisk couldn’t believe they had almost given up on this timeline. Chara had twisted something inside them, made them forget why they were fighting. Frisk would have to thank Sans and Papyrus as soon as they could, but they couldn’t afford to waste time with words. Chara, while looking significantly weaker, was still a threat  
“We had a deal, Frisk. I brought this world back _after you_ _let me kill them all_ ,” they spat. Frisk flinched. It was truer than they wanted to admit. “Your soul was the price you paid.”  
But they had to be brave. “And look how much use you got out of it,” Frisk said, gesturing to the piles of bodies that littered the hall. “I think you’ve had quite enough fun. And besides, when I gave you my soul... I never said you could keep it.”  
Chara let out a noise somewhere between laughter and screaming and raised their arms. Countless glowing red knives appeared, flying at the three companions. Frisk dodged with the grace of thousands of timelines worth of practice, while Sans and Papyrus protected each other without hesitation. While Frisk dodged, they tried to get as close to Chara as possible, but they just couldn’t reach. Then Papyrus seized Chara’s soul with blue magic and dragged them to face Frisk, who spun under one of the glowing knives and grabbed it. In one fluid motion, they came out of the dodge and rammed it into Chara’s chest.  
A Lost Soul appeared.  
[*I hate them.]  
Frisk hesitated, then sat down. “You never hated anything before all this.”  
[*I hate humans.]  
They shook their head. “You were scared of them. You never told me why, but you probably had a good reason. Can you remember what that was?”  
[*...]  
[*I hate monsters.]  
“That’s a lie. I remember once, I asked you about the barrier, and you told me something interesting. You said, ‘If my family didn’t want it gone so much, I’d almost be glad it’s there’. Your family. Asgore, Toriel, and Asriel. All monsters. And you put what they wanted above everything else.”  
[*...]  
[*I hate you.]  
Frisk chuckled. “Maybe at the start. Remember when we first met? I thought you were going to kill me! But your only plan was to ‘tell Gerson on me’ if I did anything wrong. And eventually, you trusted me. Not with everything. Not with the one thing that mattered, but... we would sleep next to each other on Toriel’s chair.”  
[*...]  
[*I died for nothing.]  
“... No. I don’t think you did. You were always with me when I went through here, right? You were pointing stuff out and telling me all about the monsters. You knew every single one, and could read them like open books. It may not have been the way you planned it, but... without you, I never would have been able to free everyone. And I never would have grown to be strong enough to promise: even after you’re gone, if something sends our family back here, I’ll make sure everyone stays happy. Because when you showed me the wishing room in Waterfall, that’s what you whispered to the Echo Flower. ‘Please, just let everyone be happy.’ That’s all you ever wanted. You’re a good person, Chara. A good monster.”  
The battle faded, and Frisk found themself still standing with the knife in Chara’s chest. But something in Chara’s eyes had changed. It was them again, not the crazed monster that Frisk had been fighting. “Heheh. Well done. I didn’t know... you had it in you...” Red dust started to peel away from Chara’s body, and all the other bodies lying still in the corners of the room. Soon, those specks were all that was left of their friend, catching the light as they danced away.  
“Is it... really over?” Frisk asked. Was Chara really gone? Had Frisk really failed to save them? Then echoes of a forgotten conversation replayed in their head.  
_“You have to kill me first. Promise me! Remember Sans? Don’t you remember in that second, each time he killed us, that we were glad for it? Think of that. I’ll try to as well.”_  
They had wanted Frisk to kill them.  
_“I don’t want to be an evil spirit.”_  
Their single tear hitting the floor was deafening in the silence. “We really did it. It’s finished...” They had done what Chara asked. Freed their soul from that torment. Maybe... this was the best ending for them. Even if it wasn’t, it was what they had asked for. Frisk turned to face the skeleton brothers, a huge smile spreading across their face. “We won!” they cheered, exploding into a fit of relieved laughter. For a moment, they could almost hear Chara’s voice.  
“Thank you, Frisk.”


	22. Waking Up to a Nightmare (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place a few months after Fun Times With Flowey. Alright! We're back in the current timeline!

It had been weeks since Sans and Frisk had decided to try to break the barrier, and Papyrus could tell they still weren’t any closer. Whenever he asked about it they seemed to get frustrated, and they were starting to stay out later each night working on it.  
Papyrus lay on the couch, watching a rerun of _Cooking With a Killer Robot_ and waiting for them to get back. Normally he would be asleep. He had been sleeping much longer since all of the ‘alternate timelines’ business. But he didn’t want to drift off before they got home. He preferred to sleep on the couch next to Sans if he could. It helped stave off the nightmares, which had only gotten worse with time. Still, as the night wore on he couldn’t help but start to fall asleep.

 _Everything flickered. There were so many others and he knew he wasn’t them, not really, but he felt like them. He flickered through their minds, catching glimpses of pain and sadness and sometimes joy but that didn’t happen nearly enough. He could handle it. He had practiced staying himself when he was forced into this. It was like climbing a very steep hill. Tiring, but he could push himself through it. What worried him was when he reached the peak. After that was always the downhill tumble..._  
_It always started with that sound. He hated that sound. Hated it with every bone in his body._  
 _Drip. He was in that hall again. Drip. Ready to kill. Drip. He was going to kill the human. Drip. Revenge. DRIP. For killing Sans. DRIP. And Undyne. DRIP. and Mettaton. DRIP. And everyone else he couldn’t save. **DRIP**. They laughed as he slammed them into the wall. **DRIP**. They laughed as he smacked them with bones. **DRIP**. They laughed as he pinned them to the wall with a hailstorm of bones. **DRIP**. They laughed as the world collapsed, and the battle started all over again._  
 _DRIP._  
 _AHAHAHAHAHAHA!_  
 _DRIP._  
 _AHAHAHAHAHAHA!_  
 _DRIP._  
 _AHAHAHAHAHAHA!_  
 _DRIP._  
 _“I never want it to end!”_  
_And he was so angry, he almost agreed._

Papyrus woke up. He didn’t thrash or call out. He simply stopped sleeping, like he always did. He took a deep breath. _I’M HOME. _ And another. _I’M SAFE._ One more. _I WON’T HURT ANYONE._ Despite his attempts to stay quiet, his deep breaths turned to sobbing. He curled in on himself, burying his head in his cape and letting out a low moan. It had been an especially bad dream that time. Any dream with _that sound_ in it was almost unbearable. It always formed some sort of sick rhythm for the nightmares to follow.  
He got up and sneaked back to his room. There was no point sleeping on the couch alone. Sans twitched slightly and mumbled something when Papyrus entered, but didn’t wake up. As carefully as he could, Papyrus slipped into the top bunk and tried to sleep.

Even though he was asleep, Sans could feel Papyrus enter the room. It was probably because of that connection from his alternate self’s dust (and the ability to sense souls that Chara had passed on to him). Whatever it was, it almost woke him up.  
He only started thinking about it the next morning, when he was actually awake. “you awake, pap?” he asked, fully expecting an enthusiastic ‘of course’. Instead, Papyrus huffed and rolled over. “hey. you... sick or something?”  
“... ‘M JUSHT TRIRED...”  
That was worrying. “what happened?”  
“...SM BADREAMSH. AN’ WEN I WOKE UP, I WAS... MORE TIRED SO I WENT BACKTA SLEEEP... AN’ IT KEPT HAPPENIN’. AGAIN AN’ AG-GAIN AN’ AGA-A-ANN...”  
The bed started to shake, and it took Sans a second to realize Papyrus was trembling. “oh.” Sans sighed, getting up and climbing onto the top bunk. “bro... it’s okay now. the kid’s not gonna reset again.” Even though Sans had more hope than usual, he didn’t really believe himself. He was always waiting for the day when his soul would be jerked right back to the start. But if Pap needed to hear that it was over, that’s what Sans would tell him.  
“... YES,” Papyrus said, stretching. He looked exhausted, but still tried to smile. “I SHOULD... GET READY FOR MY PATROL.”  
“it’s your day off, bro,” Sans said. He thought he was long past getting worried when Papyrus lost track of what day it was, but it just was one more thing that seemed wrong that morning. “maybe you should try to get some more sleep.”  
“N-NO!” Papyrus yelled, quickly sitting up. “UM... I MEAN, NO THANK YOU. I’M GOING TO GO... MAKE BREAKFAST.”  
He got up a little too quickly and swayed on his feet for a second before walking confidently down the downstairs. Sans followed him to the kitchen, deciding to spend the day keeping an eye on Papyrus.

Papyrus tried to distract himself with cooking. For a second he thought of trying to remember any of the recipes he had learned on the surface, but flinched at the idea of actively _trying_ to remember things. He would stick to spaghetti for a while. He just had to do something to distract himself (or he could talk to someone about it).  
_OH, COOL PAPYRUS. I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE ‘AWAKE’, _ Papyrus thought. It was always weird talking to his other self, but it would be rude to ignore him.  
It is a little hard not to be. You really aren’t doing well...  
I AM MERELY SPOOKED BY THE SPOOKY NIGHTMARES! he thought, even though he knew there was no point in lying. He started the spaghetti almost automatically. He didn’t want Sans to notice he was talking to himself, so he sighed as if annoyed and said, “SANS, I WOULD APPRECIATE SOME ROOM TO MOVE. I CAN HARDLY COOK WITH YOU HOVERING OVER MY SHOULDER LIKE THAT!”  
Sans shrugged, but his smile seemed strained. “oh. right. sorry,” he said, moving out into the lounge room. Papyrus turned his attention back to the spaghetti, trying to stop his hands from shaking. It had been a long time since one of his nightmares had affected him this badly.  
... Sorry. This is my fault.  
I’M NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN.  
Wanting to kill the human...Papyrus really didn’t want to think about that. _You never wanted to do that. So it has to be my fault. Those are probably my memories. I had no idea how many times I..._ Papyrus had to completely block off his other self to keep from crying. Blocking him off made his soul feel uncomfortably light and slightly constricted at the same time. For a moment, he felt Cool Papyrus disappear completely. With a small gasp that he didn’t care if Sans heard, he scrambled to bring him back. _W-what was that? _ Papyrus didn’t answer. At least, not directly, but he couldn’t hide anything from his other self. The quiet horror that radiated from his other self added another layer of guilt to the quickly growing pile. He put a hand over his soul, ashamed of himself.  
“you okay in there, pap?” Sans called. Papyrus flinched a little from the familiarity of the situation. He wondered if Sans remembered this event from the surface too.  
“I AM PERFECTLY FINE, SANS!” he said, very deliberately enunciating each word to stop himself from stuttering. It seemed to be enough for Sans, who didn’t complain.  
_I... I’M SORRY,_ he told his other self. There was no response, but he could feel that Cool Papyrus was still there. With a sigh, he finished making breakfast and started to plate up.

Sans lounged on the couch, infinitely more uncomfortable than his relaxed posture implied. He could hear Pap finishing up in the kitchen just as Frisk came downstairs.  
“G’moning,” they said, stifling a yawn.  
“hey kiddo,” he said, doing a pretty good job of sounding calm.  
Frisk sat down next to him, slouching. “Do we have any coffee left?”  
“nope.”  
“Aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuugh...” they groaned, slouching more and more until they slid off the couch with a _thud_. “Hey, when are we gonna talk to Pap about fusing?”  
“oh, that. may as well do it asap,” Sans said. He had completely forgotten about the day before.

 _They had been working at the barrier, investigating a few leads that turned out to be dead ends, when the kid thought of something._  
“Hey, what about Comic Papyrus?” they asked. Sans glanced over his shoulder at them, confused. “I’ve been thinking... you and Pap both have a lot of abilities when it comes to timelines. So it stands to reason he would too, right?”  
“sounds like you’re grasping at straws there, kid,” he said.  
“Well, yeah. I still wanted to check it out, just in case. And besides... i-if we did have to use ourlast resort _, I think that would help you guys stay... you.”_  
“i thought we said we wouldn’t even think aboutthat _. not only is it high treason, it’s stupid. really, really stupid.”_  
Frisk started pouting. “Jee, thanks. That makes me feel so much better about sharing ideas with you. No really. Seriously though. When you've fused, the two of you... actually, counting the ‘remainders’ of other runs you guys have, it’s almost three of you making up Comic Papyrus. Anyway, you-”  
“that’s not how it works,” he said, a little sharper than he meant to.  
“... Sorry. I kinda overstepped my bounds there, didn’t I?”  
Sans sighed and gave them a comforting pat on the head. “you didn’t know any better. but hey, if you really wanna see it, how about i ask pap about fusing for a while tomorrow?”  
_Frisk perked up. “Really? Thank you!”_

Sans had honestly felt a little bit awkward about it. Fusion wasn’t exactly something sacred or anything, but it wasn’t something to take lightly. Still, with how jittery Papyrus was that morning it might actually help. Sure, they should probably just try talking it through normally, but Pap didn’t seem to want to do that.  
“hey pap, you wanna fuse for a bit after this?” he asked as Papyrus served breakfast. “after that last gaster incident, we did promise we would do it more.”  
To Sans’ surprise, Papyrus hesitated. “UM. PERHAPS... SOME OTHER TIME?” he said.  
Something was very wrong. Sans made himself shrug nonchalantly. “well. your choice. i can’t force you,” he said. It was true, but... Papyrus had never said no to fusion before. It was a worrying addition to an already extremely worrying morning. They finished breakfast in silence. When they were done, Papyrus stacked the dishes in the sink without cleaning them, another unusual behavior, and declared he was going for a walk. “you want some company?” Sans asked.  
“SANS, I CAN TAKE A WALK ON MY OWN,” Pap said. He left, closing the door a little bit harder than he had to.  
Sans and Frisk just looked at each other for a second. “... What happened with Pap?” they asked.  
“i actually have no idea.”

Papyrus sighed as he marched through the snow. He knew he had snapped at Sans, but he was tired and cranky and could apologize later. (He was probably making a bad decision) but he could fix it after he worked off some magic. It had been a while since he had a training session by himself. As he headed into the forest outside of Snowdin, he thought he saw a flash of gold out of the corner if his eye.  
“FLOWEY?” he called, spinning around. For some reason, he felt uneasy.  
“Howdy, friend!” replied Flowey’s cheery little voice from behind him. Papyrus turned to face him. “It’s been a while since you last visited. I was starting to get worried!”  
“I APOLOGIZE. THINGS HAVE BEEN A BIT...” Papyrus trailed off, not really sure where he was going with that sentence. Things had been good, hadn’t they? So why did he feel so worked up? (He was just having an off day because of the nightmare. He would be fine tomorrow, as long as he didn’t do anything rash. While he was on the topic, he should probably stop talking to Flowey.) Not that he had any reason to (other than the lingering feeling of doubt in the back of his mind.)  
“Gee, Papyrus, are you okay?” Flowey asked. Papyrus realized he had been standing there silently while he argued with his other self.  
“OF COURSE! I AM PERFECTLY... PERFECTLY... NO. I’M NOT REALLY OKAY,” Papyrus admitted. It felt good to say it. Suddenly, Papyrus found himself telling Flowey everything. The RESETS. What his brother had been through. Being contacted by the human. Suddenly remembering things that technically never happened. His other self. How he was finding it harder to trust people, especially Frisk, Sans, and Flowey. The nightmares that were sometimes other timelines or universes. The times when they got so mixed up in his head that he couldn’t remember which one was his until he woke up. The fear that even this timeline was just one he was peeking into, not really his own, and had just forgotten that. The fear that he would be stuck in a constant cycle of waking up from nightmares into other nightmares, or from the good endings into something much less pleasant. Killing Chara. And the tiny, secret part of himself that wasn’t as horrified by that as the rest of him.  
Flowey was quiet for a while after that, bobbing up and down thoughtfully. “Hey Papyrus,” he eventually said, “what do you remember about me?”  
“NOT MUCH, REALLY. MOST OF THE MEMORIES SEEMS TO BE FOCUSED ON THE HUMAN,” Papyrus answered. “ALTHOUGH IF I TRIED, I WOULD... BE... ABLE... FLOWEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”  
Flowey was winding one of his vines around Papyrus’ arm. “Well, friend. I may not have arms, but you seem like you’re in need of a great, big hug!” Flowey explained. He wasn’t very good at hugs. Papyrus could feel the bright red thorns scraping against his bones, even as his arm went numb everywhere else.  
“F-FLOWEY, STOP! I D-DON’T NEED A HUG!” Papyrus said, trying to tug his arm away. Flowey just held tighter, giggling.  
“Don’t be silly, pal! I’m your good friend, and good friends comfort each other!” The vines wound his way up his legs too, rooting him to the spot.  
“PLEASE... DON’T! GET OFF...”  
“What was that? ‘Don’t get off’? Wasn’t planning on it!” Flowey cackled as the vines inched their way into Papyrus’ ribcage. He couldn’t feel anything. His vision blurred, and what little he could see looked like it was at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel. Suddenly, he was thrown into a memory that both was and wasn’t his.

 _“You look down today, friend,” Flowey said, bobbing curiously from side to side. “Why’s that?”_  
“SURELY YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT THE EVACUATION?” Papyrus sighed, sitting down on a log next to Flowey.  
“Oh! That’s because of the human, right? Why aren’t you packing?”  
“BECAUSE CAPTURING THE HUMAN IS MY JOB!” he replied, pushing the snow around with his feet. _“_ AND... I WANT TO DO IT. FOR SANS.”  
Flowey bobbed thoughtfully for a moment. “That’s your older brother, right? Why worry about him? Any brother of yours must be as strong and as brave as you, right? He should be fine!”  
Papyrus shifted uncomfortably. _“_ WELL... FLOWEY, I HAVE NEVER TOLD YOU THIS, BUT... SANS HAS ONLY ONE HP.”  
“Golly, Papyrus! That’s pretty scary!” Flowy said worriedly. “What if he meets the human?”  
“THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’M WORRIED ABOUT!” Papyrus said, kicking the snow a little.  
“You know what I think?” Flowey said, grinning. “I think you should talk to the human!”  
“I KNOW, BUT... I’M... VERY AFRAID. WHAT IF THEY DO A VIOLENCE? YOU TOLD ME ONCE, ‘KILL OR BE KILLED’. WHAT IF... WHAT IF IT COMES DOWN TO THAT? I COULDN’T HURT ANYONE... SO THEN I WOULD...” Papyrus trailed off, unconsciously gripping his chestpiece.  
“Aw, Papyrus! You still remember that lil’ old saying? I’m flattered, really, but... I don’t believe that anymore! you’ve shown me a better way!” Flowy said. “Hey... maybe all the human needs is some guidance! You would be perfect for that, Papyrus! You’re the best friend! The greatest tutor! You could turn their life around!”  
Papyrus brightened up. _“ YOU’RE... ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! THE HUMAN IS IN NEED OF A FRIEND! I SHOULD GO TALK TO THEM!”_  
_As he left, he could almost swear he heard laughter._

“FLOW... EY... W-WHY...?”  
“Because we’re friends, Papyrus,” Flowey cooed. It sounded like his voice was coming from _inside_ Papyrus’ head. “And friends... share!”  
A single thorn brushed up against Papyrus’ soul, and the numbness turned to burning pain.


	23. Waking Up to a Nightmare (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one's short and not very good. I would go back, re-do it, and make it longer, but I wanted to post something so you guys knew I was still working on this. Honestly I kinda probably shouldn't have started this arc. I like the idea, but I kinda ran out of stuff to write for it pretty fast. So there's just this and the next chapter to go for 'Waking Up To a Nightmare', then we're going to get to something I have more muse for.

Flowey stretched his new limbs experimentally. He could almost feel the bones as if they were his own. Almost, but not quite yet. The soul still had a remarkable amount of resistance left. “Nyahaha! That won’t last long,” he said with a smile, pulling Papyrus’ cheekbones up in a grin too. He started to move toward Snowdin. Surely the smiley trashbag would love to see-  
His path was blocked by a wall of bones.  
“Hmm? Oh, Papyrus. You’re still resisting?” he said, prodding at Papyrus’ soul. But it didn’t push back. Something _in_ it did. “ Oh. Not Papyrus. Nyahahah, it’s the leftovers! Well, you’ll tire yourself out eventually.” With a wave of Papyrus’ hand, the bones disappeared. After a few steps, another row of them burst from the ground. Those fell just as easily. It was painfully slow going, but Flowey made his way toward Snowdin, one shuddering step at a time.

“he’s been out a while,” Sans said, still staring out the window. Something felt wrong, but he couldn’t place it.  
“It’s only been ten minutes,” Frisk sighed, gently tugging on his sleeve to try to get him to move. For a second he resisted, before allowing the kid to pull him back over to the couch. He had barely sat down when that feeling of _wrongness_ surged again, almost physically hurting him. He jumped up.  
“ kid, i gotta go look for him!” he said, pulling on his coat and hurrying outside. He was vaguely aware of Frisk following him as he started desperately wading through the snow. It had fallen pretty heavily last night, which wouldn’t be a problem if he wasn’t so damn short.  
“Sans!” the kid yelled, grabbing his arm. “Sans. Your soul.”  
Sans glanced down, noticing the red glow coming from his chest. “fu- uh. damn it,” he said, self-consciously covering it. The glow just went right through his sleeves too. “guess i should... find somewhere to go until that stops.” Probably the side-room in Waterfall. No-one went by there, so it would be a good place to hide until the violent urges wore off. Except... he didn’t feel violent.  
The kid seemed to notice his hesitation. They stared at the glow, their expression slowly shifting from worry to thoughtfulness. “Say, Sans. Why exactly do feel like we should be looking for Papyrus?”  
“do we really have time for this?” he snarled. _There_ was the violence. Frisk took a step back. As soon as they let go of his arm, his attention was dragged back to finding Papyrus. Still, the kid had asked why. Maybe if he told them they would let him go without a fight. “ something feels wrong. it’s hard to explain, but... back in the house it _hurt_. ”  
The seemed to be all the kid needed. Their eyes widened in shock, even as they nodded like one of their theories had been confirmed. “Go, find Pap. Quickly! I’ll be back in the lab!”  
Sans didn’t have the time or the patience to ask what they had just thought of. They both turned and ran, Sans toward the woods and Frisk toward the house.

Frisk cursed at the snow slowing them down. Technically, there was no concrete reason to worry. They only had a bad feeling on Sans’ part, and a theory as to why he felt like that. But after that last Pacifist run, they didn’t want to take any chances with Papyrus. No more than they already had, anyway. If it had just been a bad feeling, then they could have put it down to nerves. Papyrus acting strange had put both of them on edge. But that red glow... Frisk knew that there had been a link between the brothers ever since the dust incident, but what if they had been thinking of the wrong brothers? What if it wasn’t the Sans and Papyrus from this timeline, but the ones form the Genocide timeline? They hadn’t noticed, since none of them had really studied the link, but if that were true then the glow meant the genocide Sans was reacting to something that was happening to Papyrus.  
Frisk took the steps to the basement lab two at a time, not bothering to close the door behind them. They went straight for the machine and set it to scan for Papyrus. The wait was infuriating. They paced for a few second before starting to map out the dust link theory, but they couldn’t even focus on that. Instead, they glanced back upstairs to make sure Sans wasn’t around before opening the secret compartment they had built into the machine during one of the many repair sessions. Sitting inside, glowing in a way that reminded them far too much of Sans’ soul, was Chara’s knife. For a second, they considered equipping it, but dismissed the notion immediately. After all, they could be overreacting as it was. Chances were Papyrus was just out for a walk, and Frisk and Sans were freaking out over nothing.  
_God, I hope so. I just want Pap to be okay._

He couldn’t feel anything (he hurt). He was numb (he was in pain). He was tired (he was screaming). (The flower was pulling at Papyrus’ soul, forcing him to walk.) He couldn’t feel anything at all. (The pain was too much to bear, but he had to get through it. What would Flowey do? What would he make Papyrus do?) He didn’t know where they were. Everything was dark. (Everything was too white, they were too close, what was he _doing_?) There was an ache. Something pulling, squeezing, something in his chest... (His soul, his _soul_ , it was going to break, he could feel it!) What was going on? (Oh no.) There was something in the distance. (Some _one_. Someone familiar. He had to get away, before he hurt them.)

The snow started to get thinner in the woods, most of it having been caught in the branches of the trees, so Sans could speed up his search.  
“papyrus!” he called. The downside to the thinning snow was that Papyrus’ tracks were getting harder to follow. “pap! i, uh, just wanna know if you’re out here, bro! can ya give me a yell if you can hear me?” Nothing. The glow in his soul flared with his worry, tinting the snow red.  
_let’s... try to calm down before we do something stupid,_ he thought to himself, stopping for a second and leaning against a tree. He swore he could hear a growl back (which he deserved. How the hell was he supposed to calm down when Paps was in trouble?) He felt a surge of nervous energy, almost forcing him to stop leaning and get back to looking. _stop that! i’ll look, but_ you _have to stay down._ (As long as Paps turned out okay, he would agree to just disappear forever.) Well, _that_ was an uncomfortably familiar thought.  
The snow had pretty much covered up the tracks now, leaving Sans to have to guess a direction. He started to head off back toward town, wondering if Pap would have headed back there, when he felt a tug on his soul. In a moment of panic, the thought that the kid had LOADED or RESET, until he felt himself slam into a tree. That was when he noticed his own blue magic on his soul.  
(Paps wasn’t that way. Sans had to head deeper into the woods.) Sans sighed. _like i’m gonna trust you._ (But if he didn’t, Paps would die.)  
Sans stopped resisting. _fine. tell me where they are._  
**_i don’t know. but i can find them. you just have to let me._**  
_that’s probably the worst idea either of us has ever had._  
**_do you want him to die? if you don’t let me do this, you’re killing him!_**  
Sans hesitated. It was a bad idea. But... _do it then,_ Sans thought, letting go of control. The blue magic let go of his soul and he dropped to the ground, his legs moving on their own and making him walk deeper into the woods. Sans could see and feel himself moving, but it felt like he was dreaming or spying on another universe rather than actually being there.  
_this is... really weird,_ he thought, watching himself move on his own. But he was distracted from that by the sight in front of him.  
“ p... pap...?”


	24. Waking Up to a Nightmare (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for an early Christmas present! Hopefully this is okay, I found this really hard to write for some reason. But the next few chapters are one-shots that are already half-written anyway, so they should come out really quickly to make up for the HUGE gap in updates.

What Sans saw was... _horrific_. It was Papyrus, but it _wasn’t_ , it was some twisted amalgamation of plant and bone. It was _his brother_ , it was _hurt_...  
“ p-papyr-rus?” he whispered, staring.  
Papyrus didn’t respond. But something else did. “Oh, Sans! I was wondering when you’d show up! Isn’t this such fun?” Flowey giggled, and _oh god_ that voice sounded like Papyrus’ but at the same time it _didn’t_ and this was _killing_ Sans to watch. But Flowey seemed to have plans to kill him in a more literal sense. Sans could feel familiar magic gather beneath him, and only just stumbled back in time to dodge the cracked, tainted attacks that slammed out of the ground.  
Oh god. Flowey wasn’t just controlling Papyrus’ body. He was controlling his _soul_ , too. Sans didn’t get enough time to properly process that before Pa- Flowey attacked again, sending bones flying directly toward Sans’ skull.  
Sans knew he should be reasoning with his brother. Calling out to him, inspiring him to break free of Flowey’s control. If the roles were switched, that was what Papyrus would be doing for him. But he couldn’t find the words. He felt like he was in shock, something else seeming to pull him out of danger (because if he was left to his own devices, he would already be dead).  
“ **just shut up and let me handle this,** ” he heard himself growl, just before his limbs went numb. Suddenly, he was moving faster, with more purpose, but it _wasn’t him_.  
The mad Sans leaped into battle, ready to kill Flowy. Even if the echo of his brother that Flowey was controlling had to die.

Papyrus didn’t understand. He was numb all over. When he tried to push through that, he felt a dull ache that he knew meant he was in agonizing pain. But something was stopping it.  
_You don’t want to see this,_ he heard. _Let me handle it. Please, Papyrus. I need you to put me in control._  
That... would work. He could just give up, let his other self do whatever he wanted... But he had the feeling that doing that... wouldn’t be very good for him at all.  
_Seeing this will only hurt you._  
But hadn’t he promised to stop ignoring things? That sort of willful ignorance got people killed.  
_Damn it, Papyrus! You can’t handle this! Just leave it to me! I’m already broken! You don’t have to put yourself in danger!_  
... That... wasn’t fair to either of them! Papyrus wasn’t a child! He could handle hardship! He had _promised_ himself that he would stop ignoring these things! And it wasn’t fair to his other self, either, for him to have to take on that much responsibility. Not by himself.  
__YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS ALONE!  
Papyrus... This is going to hurt.  
I REALIZE. BUT I STILL WANT TO HELP!  
He could almost feel his other self sigh in defeat. A moment later, the numbness fell away, and Papyrus felt the worst pain he had ever experienced in his life. Thorns dug into his soul, yanking his magic in all directions. His vision was blurry, but he could just see...  
_SANS!_ He tried to call out to his brother, but he couldn’t seem to move his mouth. As much as he pushed, he couldn’t seem to do anything but watch Sans fight. For the first few attacks, his brother just dodged. Then something... changed. His brother’s postured shifted and he became a lot more aggressive. Instead of staring at him with wide eyes as he stumbled away, he started dodging forward, magic gathered at his fingertips as he glared right at Papyrus.  
Something was very wrong.

Frisk was expecting something terrible, but they hadn’t counted on anything like _this_. The scans had taken too long to complete, and things had gone downhill as they waited. Still, they forced themself to pause and take stock of the situation.  
Flowey was possessing Papyrus. That was bad enough on its own. But something was wrong with Sans, too. They would have to get over there and see for themself what it was. Just as they were about to run outside, something red caught their attention. The Void Knife... It would certainly work to kill whoever was causing this, but did they really want to show up with a knife in hand while Sans was acting off?  
No, they didn’t but at the same time, they didn’t want to be undefended. So they slipped the knife into their inventory and equipped their stick before running out into the snow.

It had been a while since the mad Sans had gotten out and stretched his legs. Well, the other Sans’ legs, but that idiot had completely frozen at the thought of fighting his brother. The mad Sans had no problem with that. He dodged left and right, side-stepping every attack that came at him and looking for the perfect opportunity to strike. Just one good shot...  
There! He snapped his hand forward, expecting a barrage of bones to follow, but-  
“ **nothing?!** ” he gasped. In his shock, he almost tripped over his own feet, right into an attack. It took a quick shortcut for him not to get his ribs shattered. “ **d-damn it...** ” He had forgotten how fast and strong Papyrus could be when he was actually trying. Seeing him fall to the human so many times had made Sans underestimate him.  
Speaking of the human, it looked like there was a third opponent for him to face. The kid was practically wading through the snow. An easy shot, if it weren’t for the fact he had to keep on his toes to avoid Papyr- Flowey’s attacks.  
“Let him go, Flowey. This is your only warning,” they said, their voice even and unconcerned. Were they really that calm, even with all of this happening?  
“And what if I say no? Are you going to hug me to death?” Flowey laughed.  
Frisk sighed before looking over to Sans. “... Whatever happens, I’m doing it to save Papyrus. Sans, whichever one you are, I need you to remember that.”  
Flowey didn’t give Sans time to answer, launching bones and vines at both of them. They both dodged, ending up right next to each other.  
“I’m waiting for an answer, Sans!” the kid snapped.  
The mad Sans was about to snap back, but with a kick the other Sans took back control.

For a second, Frisk was worried that Sans wouldn’t be able to take control back. They sighed in relief when they saw his eyes flicker back to normal, and he nodded.  
“whatever you’re gonna do, kid, do it fast,” he said, summoning a wall of bones to protect them from a vine that was about to take their head off.  
“It’s not going to be pretty,” they said, before taking off. They dodged through the attacks filling the air with the ease of a thousand timelines, and with Sans covering them from the worst of it with his own attacks it wasn’t long before they reached Papyrus.  
“Sorry, Pap,” they whispered, before grabbing the flower sticking out of his eyesocket. They dropped their stick and reached into their inventory, pulling out the void knife and ignoring the gasp from Sans behind them, as well as the attacks they felt him form right behind their back. “I’m not going to kill you, Pap, but I’m going to do a little bit of weeding.”  
They blocked out the terrified begging of the flower in their hands as they got to work. It was tough to avoid even scratching Papyrus, especially with how much Flowey made him thrash around, but they worked as quickly as they could.

Sans couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the red weapon in Frisk’s hands. He was preparing to blast them right off of Pap and try to solve the Flowey situation himself, but... they really were being careful not to touch Papyrus. As much as the screaming broke his heart, he stood back, watching closely for any sign that they were about to hurt Papyrus. One wrong move, and the kid would be torn apart. The attacks he kept right at their back made him sure of that.

Papyrus _screamed_. With those thorns digging into his soul, he could actually _feel_ the knife ripping through Flowey’s vines. They screamed for Frisk to stop, but the human just _kept going_! Why would they-?  
Oh no.  
They thought it was Flowey begging for mercy.  
_I could... help numb the pain again,_ his other self suggested. He could feel just how little Cool Pap wanted to take the pain. So why would he suggest it? Well, of course he would. They were both Papyrus-es, after all. Of course Cool Pap would want to spare him the pain.  
_N-NO. I C-CAN DO IT. IT’S MY TURN TO PROTEC-CT Y-YOU. PLEASE,_ he replied. His other self hesitated, but was too tired from his earlier efforts to argue. Guilty but thankful, he slipped into a state that was almost like sleep as Papyrus protected him from the pain.

It took _forever_ to cut Flowey out of Papyrus. Frisk stepped back as the taller skeleton collapsed to his knees, shaking and sobbing.  
“Papyrus?! Did I cut you?!” Frisk gasped, trying to help him to his feet. Papyrus pulled away, shaking his head. “P-Pap, I’m sorry, I-”  
Papyrus pulled them into a hug, still shaking. Sans rushed over a second later, joining the hug. “ bro, it’s okay, we’re gonna be-”  
“Shh.”  
For a while, they just stayed there, Papyrus shaking slightly as he held the two of them close. It would be a while before he recovered from what happened.


End file.
